Coffee with Dar: Do Pets Really Grieve?

Hey, thanks for popping in for a bit. It seems I somehow lost my ‘feed’ so I’m starting over with my blog. (Have I mentioned I’m absolutely not a ’techie?’) LOL.

If you were with me throughout the 4 years I published my newsletter (Rat Race Coach) you’ll have heard me speak of our Frisco.  She was our beloved Yellow Lab.

Well, we had to put her down a bit over 2 months ago.  She was 14.  Of course, it was a really sad event for us as we’ve had her since a week after our marriage.

When she was 8, we brought little Ben home (Choc Lab).  He’s 6 right now and had never been without Frisco.  We thought he was handling her being gone and then — boom!  He quit eating… 

I’ll be honest.  We weren’t expecting that.  No idea what we expected, but that threw us for a loop.  Now, if he was overweight, we might not have worried about it too much.  But, he’s really slim and active (chasing those squirrels and rabbits is hard work) – and we were pretty upset about Ben not eating.

Long story short, after the 5th day of not eating, a friend told us it was probably the ’socialization’ aspect he was missing.  The more we thought about it, we realized it was very possible.  Our two Labs had eaten at the same time each day, together, for the past 6 years…

We weren’t (and still aren’t) ready to bring home another pet, so we put our brains to work and came up with the perfect way to ’socialize’ with Ben at mealtime.

We started feeding him by hand, LOL.  Voila!  It worked!  He’s eating again, so all is well.  I’m sure down the road we’ll phase out the handfeeding… But for now, it’s working (and I don’t wanna mess that up.)

Who woulda thought?

I guess I’d have to say, yes, they absolutely *do* grieve, although each in his or her own way.

Have you had a pet that grieved?  If so, in what way?

I’d love to hear from you.  (Just post a comment below to share your story.)

Dar