Losing an animal and how to cope with the emotions.

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This morning, I went outside to go for a riding lesson and I found my 2 year old setter dead on the front seat. As I have been gone for a few days and I saw her before I left, It has to be the caregiver who left her in. Either way it was an accident and the dog had a bad habit of going in when a door was left open. However this came as a shock to me. This dog is like a service dog type and knows how to lie down on me and "hug" me whenever I get upset. This loss will be felt.

My first question is, How do i keep myself from "closing up" and not showing my emotions. half of my mind wants me to grieve while the other half is telling me to shut the emotions down before I can feel them. I know I should feel sad and this morning I cried harder than I have ever cried before and i started to "open up" but as the day has progressed I have felt myself "closing up" and I have faught this feeling but I seem to be losing the battle.

This has been an emotionally tiring day and one that I am glad that it is almost over.

I don't think there is anything wrong with closing up, just means you have good control over your emotions. It's probably part of normal moving on.

I closed up when my pet chinchilla died last year & I had problems falling asleep & staying asleep & a minor depression partly because of that. My doc prescribed Trazodone which is a weak antidepressant that helps with falling asleep that helped & I'm still on partly because I'm afraid the depression might come back if I go off. I still feel guilty & blame myself over her death but I try not to dwell on it much & stay busy & I got a new pet shortly after which helps some. I guess it's something I may never really get over but I don't feel much need to at this point & feel guilty if I do.

I lost one of my turtles in the back yard when he ran away. I had let him out with his litter mate and he ran off while his friend returned covered in wood chips.

I entered a state of depression the following months, and my brother really liked him and is still mad at me. I got another turtle, so the remaining turtle wouldn't be lonely (I now doubt reptiles feel lonely, being solitary creatures) and the turtles do value companionship.

I wish I knew what else I could say.

Everyone grieves in their own way, there is no right or wrong way to do so. You have my condolences though, loosing a pet is never easy.

Losing an animal is harsh. I tend to consolidate my feelings better for a family members death than I do for an animal I've cared for. I thought I was cold at first but I slowly began to understand that my sorrow came from knowing the animal knew less about It's life/death than a person would.

Being forced to leave my side, without even knowing why... It really gets to me, and often my senses get overwhelmed with it.

In my experience, letting my emotions run their course until I no longer felt that invisible pressure within me helps the most. From there It's just a matter of letting time heal. The thoughts will always hurt, but strangely I feel better if I keep them somewhat close in my memory & heart.

I'll always keep my animal friends within my 'peripherals' (if you will) because not only did they love me unconditionally, they taught me many valuable lessons a NT person could not, simply because standard thinking could not teach me what I needed to know.