Loss and Bereavement

Have you ever lost a beloved companion animal?

Wallace Sife, Ph.D, author of The Loss of a Pet, started a unique nonprofit organization devoted to the understanding and treatmen t of grief related to the loss of a companion animal. The mission of the Association for Pet Loss and Berea vement (APLB) is “to provide comfort and counseling to bereaved pet owners and to offer training to counselors and other professionals in this important yet still under-served discipline.”

By Randy Turner, CAPS’ pro bono attorney

After my dogs died, I vowed that I would not get another dog because the pain of losing them is more than I can bear. (I still get teary- eyed thinking about them). Then I met Smokey. She is a one year-old mutt I met when I walked by a booth the local humane society had set up. They told they had been trying to adopt her out for five months but no one wanted her. Of course that was all I needed to hear! Sh e is my baby girl now. I realize that I was being selfish in not wanting to get another dog. A dog being able to have a loving home and a happy life is worth all the pain we go through when we lose them. There are so many dogs out there that need loving homes. I decided th at I don’t have the moral right to deprive a dog just to save me some heartache.