Losing my childhood pet

@Punicorn667

Sorry to hear this :( I lost my closest childhood pet coming up on 6 years ago and I cried for days. It was made even worse by the fact that I was already living away from home, and it was also during the pandemic, which made a proper goodbye pretty much impossible. I knew from the last time I saw her while visiting family during holidays that she wasn't doing well and I may not see her again in this life, but it didn't make it any easier when the time actually came.

It gets easier with time, I promise. It sounds cliche but it is true. Let yourself feel as much as you need to right now because bottling up always makes it worse in the end. Even if you feel like you can't do anything, it's okay. You have to let it all out.

What helped me - even if it's a little contradictory to the above - was finding distractions. Watch a show that is completely different from something you'd normally be interested in and focus on that, or find some good video essays to sink some time into. I got really into researching cryptids (not jackalopes even though that's in my username lol - a different and more obscure one) and it helped let my brain focus on something other than missing my pet and gave me some physical and emotional relief until I was in a better place to cope.

Don't rush into it before you're ready, but when you feel the time is right, you can open your home and your heart up to another pet. That can be incredibly healing in its own way, to return the love the universe gave you in the form of your departed pet back into building a relationship with a new one. It helped me to adopt two new cats about three years after my childhood one passed, when I was also in a place to give them a good life that I might not have been in the place to back then.

@Punicorn667 Pet loss is real and devastating. I'm glad you have a therapy appointment coming up. I was devastated when my first dog died. I understand you.