r/PetLossJourney

Archie was put to sleep over 12 hours ago, he was buried in my garden and it’s been raining on and off. I feel so guilty for leaving him out there but I know I can’t bring him back in the house anymore ❤️ 16 yrs old ❤️ may he rest in peace

I am missing this little boy Bootsie, who crossed the bridge 3 months ago. I like to think he knew how much he meant and continues to mean to me during my short time with him. I love him so much and I miss him beyond all words. It helps for me to let the world know that he lived and was so amazing.

(I included some photos of Nibbs with his brother, Kibbs. Nibbs is the lighter one with the tooth poking out. they're in chronological order starting from the day ĺ met him as a stray to that final vet visit)

I lost my cat, Nibbs, a couple of years ago, and every time I think about him, I get so upset with myself for how much he endured...

.

I was given a misdiagnosis by the first vet, who had me giving him sub-q fluids every day. which, if you're unfamiliar, means I had to hold him down and put a needle between his shoulders and try to keep him from moving.i also had to give him different medications. Lĺ2ĺ¹ just kept deteriorating... so I went to a different vet. but... something in me knew, he wouldn't be coming back home with me. and I wad right. he had masses on his liver and intestines, and he was so fragile at that point that the vet she /could/ try to do surgery, but that they would likely come back.

....if he survived the surgery at all.

.

so I made the decision every pet owner dreads.

but, I'm very aware of how in-tune our babies are of our emotions, so I told myself I wouldn't cry until he was gone... I put him in my lap, and he immediately started purring for the first time in almost a year. to me, it felt like he was telling me that it's okay, and he's ready.

he got the injections while be purred on my lap, and once the vet confirmed TOD, I broke into tears....

I look back, I wish I had gotten a second opinion sooner

Aknow that he likely would have passed sooner or later regardless, I wish he didn't have to suffer so much..

My beloved 11.5 yo English bulldog passed away during surgery last Thursday. The surgery was to have a very large lump removed on the back near her spine. It was larger than a golf ball but smaller than a baseball. When talking to the vet the first time, he had mentioned her gums never looked good from the start and looked almost blueish. I was distraught and a mess when we first spoke so I didn’t question this. Went in the next day to get more details and clarifications and they said she did not look like that from the start and her vitals were fine till she crashed. Spoke to them again and they said when they noticed her gums turning blue they started the CPR efforts and weren’t successful. I requested the surgical notes and there is barely anything in there and nothing regarding her gums turning blue. I am so concerned there is possibly more they aren’t telling me. She barely lasted 8 min in surgery. She was old and we were worried this lump was cancer so maybe this was all truly too much for her. I know nothing will bring her back but I just want to know that they did what they could and she died peacefully. I wish I never got her this surgery. The amount of regret I have is insane.

I am completely devastated. She was my first dog and our first baby. Our world revolved around here. I can’t sleep, can’t eat and can’t think about anything else. I have a toddler and baby to take care of so I’m really trying to process this and cope as best I can because I need to take care of my kids. I can’t handle the pain. Has anyone gone through something similar?

lost my best friend about two weeks ago and i feel like nothing will ever be the same. she was my therapy cat for 6 years (i got her as an adult cat) and made it through some of my darkest depression with me. she was the absolute light of my life and the thing that brought me the most joy and comfort. waking up in the middle of the night and having her next to me meant so much. she followed me everywhere, came on every trip with me, and was a constant source of comfort and love. it’s so hard to feel any sense of normalcy without her around now. i am crying so much and it feels like maybe it will take me longer than a “normal” person to recover (if you can ever really “recover”) having struggled with depression/bipolar 2 for most of my life. i don’t want to forget her but right now any reminder of her sends me into an absolute spiral. my partner has been so supportive but it’s just different for him because she was truly my cat (he and i only moved in together about a year ago).

grateful for any tips on how to get through the day after losing your companion

I just wanted to make a post honoring my baby and what a fighter she is. At 4 months old, someone abandoned this beautiful calico shorthair kitten at the lobby of my dad’s apartment building. Out of all buildings on that street, they chose my dad’s. At the time, my birthday was only a few weeks away and my brother and I had been begging for a cat or a dog. My dad instantly felt a connection with her and she became my birthday present.

Not only was she so beautiful, but she had such a unique personality. She loved playing with my Barbie’s and swinging them around by their hair, kicking doors open and if she couldn’t she would scratch at them endlessly until she got in, she wasn’t scared of any dog. My neighbors had two big white dogs and she would jump up to a really high window to face them. Whenever we pulled out the luggage’s, she knew that meant someone was leaving so she would sit in them and make sure we could put anything in them. Whenever someone left on vacation, she made it known she was depressed and stayed near that persons room until they came back. She was always the first person to greet us at the door. The second she heard the door knob twisting she would get out of bed and run to the door to say hello. She loved playing tricks on my parents in the morning. If my mom already fed her she’d go to my dad and meow pretending she didn’t get fed until she brought him downstairs and he would see she already got a fresh plate. She loved her Boar’s head deli meat (specifically smoked turkey) and her friskies always had to be shredded with gravy.

April of 2024, my poor baby began breathing really hard. We brought her to numerous specialists and vets to figure out what happened. We kept getting told it was either asthma or pulmonary fibrosis and we gave her fluticasone inhaler, albuterol for the really bad days, and steroids but nothing ever fully helped her breath back to normal. She still loved eating- in fact she was finishing her entire plate, using the bathroom, but it was clear her body wasn’t as strong as before. Two days before her death, which was May 13th 2026, she stopped eating, stayed in the basement by herself which she never did, and was open mouth breathing full time with brown mucus coming out of her nose. I brought her straight to the vet who suspected a bacterial infection and gave her a terbutaline injection to help her lungs and azithromycin suspension for the infection. My poor princess fought till her very last breath, but she couldn’t make it. She passed away under my brothers bed after attempting to get up but she kept collapsing, then seized, then she was gone. I feel so guilty I didn’t pull her out of under the bed an hour before her passing when I saw she wasn’t doing well. But I wanted to leave her bed in case it truly was a bad infection so she could rest and fight it off. My parents were talking to her and watching her as she was passing so she wasn’t completely alone but I wish I was there to pet her and comfort her. She was 15 years and 9 months. I love that angel to the moon and back. I’m heartbroken she passed in that way, but what’s comforting me is she passed in her own home… she fought so dang hard. I think we did everything we could even up until her last day… when I brought her home from the vet I kept her in the bathroom with two heaters on since she was hypothermic and gave her oxygen via an oxygen mask…

Hi everyone, this saturday when I was at work I loss my 8 year old australian shepherd Maru to a pitbull who attacked him. Sadly he had already passed on by the time I was home and he passed away alone. I'm struggling right now mentally and finding it hard if not impossible to do anything at all due to this being the closest bond I've ever had with someone or a pet, we did everything together and he was always attached to my hip, he always slept right by my side or against my back and just being in my bed isn't the same and I find it impossible to sleep besides for short periods until I wake up crying or looking for him feeling confused to where he is until the realization kicks in. The same questions keep running through my mind about his final moments, how much was he suffering? Him wondering where I was and why am I not helping him? And how scared he was before he passed away? I keep blaming myself for so much and to be honest I've loss the will to keep going on even though I know he would want me to keep on pushing forward. But seeing how bad that dog attacked him and the condition he was in when I found him destroyed me and I can't get that image out of my mind, there was a lot of blood coming out of his mouth and body and seeing how much that was under him when I picked him up disturbed me. When the vet examined him they found punctures on his head, throat, stomach, back, and legs so basically his whole body. She also told me that it looks like he had broken a rib and his lung was punctured. The other dog is being put down but sadly the damage has already been done and I can't stop thinking about how much my baby boy suffered and the thought of him dying alone is messing me up. I wish more people would train their dogs especially with the ones that are bigger breeds and can be more dangerous so things like this wouldn't happen. If anyone here has experienced something similar please let me know anything that helped you or reach out and message me if you feel more comfortable talking about it that way. I'm also sorry to anyone who has loss a pet recently or to anyone who has suffered something similar.

I did post this in another community but I didn't get much advice, anything helps. Thank you so much.

Eleven years ago, I lost my cat in a tragic accident. He got scared by a sudden noise in the hallway (someone was using the elevator and stepped out at the same floor) panicked, and fell from the 11th-floor hallway window. It was a moment that changed my life forever. For over more than a decade, I kept my grief to myself, struggling to process the Severe pain and the emptiness he left behind that got me irrigural heartbeats (Arrhythmia).

I am Still Suffering, he was So young So Sweet So Genius💔🐈‍⬛

But I finally felt ready to open up about that day and the long, difficult journey of healing that followed. I made this 28 Minutes video for anyone who is currently feeling that same "broken" feeling.I feel like that I want to tell everyone & Share what 11 years of reflection taught me about the "Scars" we Carry—and why we are still whole, even after such a devastating loss. If you are struggling today, I hope my story offers you some comfort and a different perspective on your pain.

https://youtu.be/bAkrGGj4i0E

I’d love to hear how you all find the strength to keep going after losing the Best Friend.. actually he was My everything❤️

We put down our almost 9 year old bull mastiff, Maverick, down this thursday. I'm seriously wondering if we should've waited longer, although there's nothing I can do about it now & I feel so incredibly guilty.

In the morning, he appeared totally okay, and then within a few hours became lethargic, uninterested in treats (which is the absolute opposite of him, he's a BIG treat guy), and panting while remaining still. My boyfriend stopped by to watch after him until someone could get home, & luckily my mom got out early so we were able to hoist him into the car and take him to the emergency vet.

The vet found that most of his main vitals were okay, his heartbeat sounded a little muffled so they decided to do a quick ultrasound and found fluid in his chest surround his heart. Since they can't detect a cause immediately, they suggested it was cancer, a foreign object, or heart disease. Regardless, he needed to be sedated so they could get the fluid out, we would've gotten it tested to determine anything, would likely have had to have done multiple procedures to determine the cause/treatment, and there was a high chance of it coming back, no matter the cause.

My dad arrived to the hospital and they decided they wanted to bring him back home so he can pass away in the comfort of his things. We brought him home and realized that he wasn't soothing; he was panting heavier than ever and we were worried he wouldn't make it a few days while we sorted out the plans (most likely due to the stress and now I even feel guiltier about bringing him back home when we could've just done it there all along).

We had to carry his 140lb. ass into the car which is UNHEARD of (he despised being picked up or anything) and brought him back to the vet, and he did not want to go in, I felt absolutely fricken horrible. We put him to rest on his bed in the office and since then I've just fault awful about the whole situation. I suddenly lost my cat this past August and I wasn't fully prepared to lose my pup too, especially without thinking we would the day prior, and now we don't have any fur babies in the home :(

I regret bringing him back home after stressing him out at the vet, but I also regret not keeping him at the house for longer to see if maybe he does feel a little better (this is from info online but my mom speculated that maybe he had a trigger of some sort which caused a flare up & some of the liquid can be reabsorbed so i was having high hopes). I understand that a lot of this can just be grief & me trying to grapple with everything, but I wish we didn't do this so soon, I wasn't prepared even though I know (I think) this was the right thing.

I just can't believe how it all fell so fast. He had been getting slower (as we attributed to age) and they brought him to the (different) vet within the past year who said he had a heart murmur (apparently he doesn't, it probably just sounded muffled) otherwise everything was relatively normal. I also regret not getting him double checked, I regret not being with him more, and I regret having to do this so suddenly, especially in a place he wasn't familiar with.

I'm mainly just venting and if you're still here thank you for reading & here's some things about Mavvy

He was an INCREDIBLE dog, like barely barked, never was aggressive or bit anyone, was borderline unbothered 24/7 (unless he saw a holiday lawn inflatable, he didn't like those for some reason) and genuinely a cuddle bug. The only thing that motivated him was treats, which we clearly gave him plenty of. He was a fan favorite at every gathering & while he looks intimidating and can scare others (understandably) he was never afraid of anyone.

We did purchase him (not my favorite, but..) because my mom was attacked by a dog & truly traumatic facial injuries, so they wanted the opportunity to do research on certain breeds and be able to train them themselves. We've had him since he was about 5 months old and he would have been 9 at the end of May. I truly am so grateful to have been able to spend life with this lovebug, even if it didn't end in the way I had expected. I hope we were able to show him all the love he introduced us to & I'm grateful he's not suffering any longer. Thank you 🫶🏻

what to say my Rainy, besides I miss ya, bud.

16 years ago, I unexpectedly stepped into a role that became so much more than “owning” a dog. You were never just a dog. You were my child. A part of me.

The level of care, love, and attention you needed gave me a sense of purpose. You made me feel needed, fulfilled, and deeply connected. My friends and family saw that over the years, so much so that they began wishing me a happy Mother’s Day every year.

You gave that gift to me, Chloe.

I didn’t even think today would feel this heavy. But as I was sending Mother’s Day texts to the women in my life who have kids, I got a text back saying, “Happy Mother’s Day to you too!” and it immediately tapped into my grief. Tears fell from my face as quickly as I read those words.

I guess she’s right.

I’m still your mother. I’ll always be your mother.

Just like you’ll always be my baby.

I love you so much, Chloe.