I’ve had this issue with my own dog and recently have discovered that I’m not alone in my thinking.
Not having children I value my relationship with my dog as an amazing precious gift. Only a pet loving, most likely childless, person can probably appreciate my love for my dog. I worry if I drop her off at “the spa” for grooming. I worry when someone other than me or my mom or my neighbors are watching her. I shell out whatever money necessary for her health and well being. As a result, she loves me like no other. I’m so grateful for her in my life. But what happens to my dog if I die before her?
Will she look for me all over until she just gives up trying? Will she think I’ve abandoned her and decided I didn’t love her enough to stick around? Will she be heartbroken? Pissed? Confused? Well, I can’t handle the thought of any of those things so I took matters into my own hands a long time ago. At least 6 different people know that my wishes are that if I am to die before my beloved beagle, that she is to sniff my dead body to hopefully understand that I am not coming back for no other reason than, I just can’t. I didn’t abandon you, I didn’t forget or lose interest in you, I’m just no longer able to be with you. But I love you now and forever.
Clearly I also have a plan in regards to who will care for her in case I die before her, but I want to try to make sure that she will understand that there would be no way I would leave her voluntarily.
That said, I was doing a clients hair today that is elderly probably in her late 70’s to early 80’s and she was talking about her dog that passed a number of months ago and as much as she’d like another, she just feels lost as to who would take care of it if her or her husband were to die. Originally her thinking was that her kids might not want to take her dog if it needed to be placed after said deaths. But after a little questioning she also felt that, like me, the dog would feel abandoned and unloved or unwanted.
Totally unacceptable.
So then do we not have a pet for fear of our dying and leaving them without parents? Or possibly worse, not have a pet for fear that they themselves will die first and suffer the loss of a loving, almost childlike, pet? My thinking towards the latter and possibly both is that the love we get from them, and the love we give, is worth it in the end. I’d rather have a small window of time of love and memories with am amazing soul, then not at all.
But just in case, I have a plan.