It can be quite hard to get over the loss of pet friends and family. Often, especially for older people, they are the only contact that they have on a daily basis with another personality, or a warm heart. For the elderly, loss of pet family members can be particularly devastating, which is why there are often programs for those in animal bereavement, and those suffering from the loss of a spouse who are encouraged to make a new friend with a cat or dog. Animal relationships have a definite healing quality when you open your heart up to them. In turn, they are often healed themselves, especially if they have been neglected or abused.

From what I know now, animals do travel with us and are often waiting for us when we continue to the next plane. This question about loss of pet family members is often the first thing to come up in discussions with a client. I have a client who lost a child, who wanted to know if any of their pets were with him, and I was told by spirit folks, that one of their dogs was by his side. His first she said when I gave her the name I was given, if I recall correctly. So though we may feel real pain during the loss of pet family members, it is comforting to know that we may well see them again.

My father, who was not an animal lover, and who did not believe in my abilities, but instead, was concerned that I was developing schizophrenia like what we thought my mother had most of my life, did seem to have a different opinion during the last three or so months of his life. He had been ill with cancer, and one day, after years of refusing to have any discussions with me about hearing voices, or spiritual matters in general, he asked,

"What do you think it means when I see a man, that I feel like I know, walking on my right but just far enough ahead so that I can't see his face. And beside him is a black dog, a German Shepard I believe, walking on his other side - his right. Neither seems to notice or interact with me, and yet it feels as if the man is pulling me along to follow him."

I asked if he wanted me to try and find out by asking the spirits I communicate with what it was about, and he answered yes. I knew then that something was very different. I asked, and was told that it was his cousin, from a certain town, that was about two years older than him, and died when he was in his 20's. My father knew exactly who I was talking about and agreed, that indeed it was this person, but that he had never seen him before at any age other than his 20's, and the man in his vision was in his late 40's or so, but he was sure it was him. He had not known if he had a black dog, but said that it made sense because he lived on a farm back in their home state.

I was amazed at how easily he accepted the information after years of rejecting any such talk before. We talked often after that about the afterlife, and he had a lot of questions. He saw his cousin and the dog several times over the next three months, and sometimes, only the dog. It seemed that in that state, near continuation, he could see what I had been seeing most of my life, and understood. My last statement to him as has been with many family members, was to tell him who would meet him when he continued on. That seems to be the concern of most folks -- who will meet them. In many cases, there is an animal meeting them as well. I suspect for people who have no human family, their animal family may be the only ones that they recognize on departure, though there are likely ancestors there to greet them as well, but often too ancient for them to recognize.

So loss of pet family members is a very significant thing in many cases, and should be treated with the respect our friends deserve. However, like with our human family losses, we are never to let, human bereavement, pet loss, animal bereavement or any other kind of grief to take us over and force us out of being our best spiritual selves. It dishonors our loved one's contribution to our lives. Pet loss is no easy thing to get through, but it is possible if we keep it in perspective. They have their journey, just as we do. We should be grateful that we can walk along side of each other for the time granted, and perhaps more when we leave this plane.

I've found some resources and websites for those dealing with the loss of pet friends. I hope they are useful to you.