Your Pet Loss Stories

by Linda
(Missouri)

We have lost 4 dogs in the 31 years we have been married. There is not time or space to write about all of them. I will write about the first pet I lost, because he was buried and had a funeral, and our first dog to be put down.

Just as in human life your oldest dog is not necessarily the first one that will die. We got Augie, our AKC Dalmatian to keep our 9 year old Beagle Snoopy young and to give him a buddy. Little did we know that Snoopy would keep HIM going and be a comfort to us when we lost Augie.

Augie died at the very very young age of 22 months from a rare intestinal cancer. We decided to have him buried at a pet cemetery, and have a funeral too. The man who owned the park could not have been any kinder to us. When I called him, he almost started crying, "he said, oh my God, what happened, your dog was so young!" I told him what had happened. He picked up our dog's body at the animal hospital and started preparing his body.

The funeral was two days before Christmas which made it even more sad and depressing. He and his helper acted so dignified and they gave us a funeral that was both beautiful and respectful. The owner said some very nice prayers and thoughts, and placed a single red rose on our dog's pine coffin. At the end of the funeral he gave us some time alone with our dog before he would lift him down into the ground.

When we were ready to leave he shook our hand and gave us a hug, and said he was truly sorry for our loss. We thanked him and were on our way, with some papers if we wanted to later get a headstone. We paid for the perpetual maintenance (which was a nominal fee) so they keep up our dog's grave real nicely. We don't go as often as we should to see him but we still do even 21 years later.

He will never be forgotten. Snoopy our Beagle was devastated when his buddy died. We gave him even more attention than we normally did which was a lot already. He seemed to get better every day. A few months later we adopted another dog so Snoopy would have a pal again--this time a female lab/shepherd. Losing a furry family member is so hard, but they will be a part of our hearts forever and ever....