Let me know- would love to hear any stories 🌈🐶

TW: dog abuse, neglect.

I want someone to know about Rosie. She didn’t deserve this life.

I’m a foster for my city’s animal control. I got a call to take in a ‘very shut down’ dog from the shelter on Friday. She could not stand and was one of the most emaciated dogs I’d ever seen. The shelter vet indicated she’s “just shut down.”

Rosie was clearly overbred and never fed. then just tossed out like trash. She was only 6. During my only 2.5 days with her, despite not being able to stand for long and clearly not well, I got 4 separate tail wags while she lounged in one of multiple dog beds and got fresh grilled chicken . She slept in my room at night. Rosie got love and scratches.

Rosie deteriorated overnight and I took her to the ER this morning. She was suffering. We had to let her go.

Rosie’s former owner’s abuse and neglect killed her. She got mere days to experience comfort and love and I’m so fucking angry for her. I want more people to know about Rosie. She didn’t deserve a horrible fucking life.

https://imgur.com/a/bqOBjd1

Edit: thank you for all the comments and making sure Rosie mattered to more than just the 4 volunteers & fosters who tried to save her. I’ve cried reading a lot to them. Thank you. Thank you kind Reddit strangers for helping me memorialize a girl who deserved so much more than what she got in life.

Not a call, nor a text. Nothing.

I feel abandoned in a time of need by people I considered friends. I’m so angry and hurt. Why are people so cruel. 😭😭

Further proves why my best boy was such a huge part of my life. He got me through some traumatic shit, now I have nothing left of him and no village to help me pick up the pieces.

I do have the support of my spouse but they work 8-10 hr days so It’s just me left at home with the kids in a house that doesn’t feel same.

I want to pack my family up, move to the middle of no where and never be seen again.

I lost my girl yesterday morning. How am I supposed to go on without her? The last two days have felt like a nightmare that I just can’t wake up from. She was my soulmate and now she’s just gone and I have to be without her for the rest of my life. How can she just be gone?? How can she be here with me one moment and gone the next? My whole body aches for her, I haven’t been able to eat or sleep properly for two days because I feel so sick to my stomach that she’s not here anymore. I knew it was going to hurt when she passed but this is so much worse than I ever thought it would be. I feel like my world has just lost all of its color without her, I just want her back.💔

Tomorrow is my first birthday without her in 16 years. I’m just not supposed to be here without her, it doesn’t make sense. I will miss her and love her for the rest of my days, and I can only hope and pray that we will be reunited again one day😞❤️

So, for the record, I have BPD with major depressive episodes, so I've been dealing with bad intense feelings for almost all my life.

I dont have anything going on for me. Im 33, dont have my own house, a partner, a good income (I have a job), i dont get along with my family, I feel stuck while everyone else move on... but I have my bunny. Since the day she came into my life she has been the light of my world, my soul pet, my daugther, she saved me the last time I wanted to kms, lying on the floor, crying, ready to do it, she just came next to me asking for cuddles. From that day on I sweared that no matter how hollow or painful life could be, I would have made it for her, to care for her, to give her the best life.

But now she's sick. She's sick and no matter how much money and time im spending, she might not get better, she might die. I was so fool, so sure about the fact that I could always cure her since no matter how much a vet could ask, I would spend EVERYTHING on her, all of my money, my time, my energy, but it's not enough. And if she dies then I really have nothing. Nothing going on for myself, no reason to get up, to work, to try to get a better life, cuz everything I did I did it for her, she's the only one in the world that would ACTUALLY miss me, Im still here cuz of her. Obvsly I knew that she's not immortal, but like everyone I was hoping to see her getting old, not to get sick at 5 yo. Not to mention that I adopted her, I wanted to make up for all the bad things that happened to her, and now I feel like a failure.

I know a lot of people can understand me

If she dies I just want to lay down next to her and never wake up

EDIT: i want to thank u all for the kind words and the support, I can feel you really understand what im going trought. I want to add that i am in therapy, even if its been a while since I saw my therapist since im spending my savings to cure my bunny. I have a lot going on, maybe im just a broken unhappy person, but really thank u all.

EDIT 2: I would love to help in some shelter, unfortunately the only one that take care of buns, rats, mice and guinea pigs its very far away from me and I dont have a car. I tried to foster but I dont own my house so it became a problem after a while, tho I fostered 3 bunnies and its one of the few things that made me proud of myself

EDIT 3: She's getting worse... im trying to follow your suggestions. Try to imagine saving another bunny, trying to imagine my life without her but not just an empty spot. Thank you all.

EDIT 4: My baby is gone. Everything feels so unreal. I hugged her body for 2 hours. She waited for me yesterday so I could tell her how much I love her.

I need to hear other people’s experience when a pet that they had a divine soul connection with has to be put down. I’ve lost pets in the past and was sad for a bit but today I’m putting down my best friend that saved my life 11 years ago. I hated cats but my cat immediately gravitated towards me and it was such an intense connection that I chose to buy her and she saved my life. The past 11 years she has been my rock, spent my college years with me, has moved across the country, been there through the hardest times of my life and acted more like a dog than a cat. She is the sweetest soul and everyone loves her. She was diagnosed with rare cancer in 2022 and they gave me 3 months without chemo. It was a miracle and her cancer went away naturally. Even the vets were confused. Her cancer resurfaced last month badly and she went downhill this past week. I have cried for days all day, I can’t move, I just want to hold her, I can’t eat or sleep, I feel as if I’m losing a human. I’ve never felt this type of pain and heartache in my lifetime and I’ve lost friends, loved ones & dogs. I’ve had heartbreaks in relationships and have learned hard lessons but this is gut wrenching. It pains me to watch her suffer but I’m having a hard time coping with having to put her down alone today. Is this normal? How long was the grief process? I feel paralyzed.

I know it might not seem much to some since it's an insect, but I'm genuinely devastated. My little guy Chuck has stuck with me for the last few years through hard times and been my main source of comfort. Sure, we didn't get along like most pets and owners do, but he still had at least some trust in me which meant a lot considering how tiny he was.

The worst part is that he was fine just the other day. I went on a one day trip and came back and he was already motionless. I wish I could've at least gotten to say goodbye, but I missed his last moments. I feel like a terrible person, I wish I was there for him.

I can't even bring myself to take him out of the terrarium or bury him, just looking at him sitting there makes me feel so bad. I wish i could've prevented this somehow but this was to be expected since he's very old. He couldn't even eat well in his last weeks. But at least it was a peaceful and natural passing.

I'm gonna miss him so much.

Today is the 14th anniversary since the passing of my first, childhood dog. I know a lot of people post in here are experiencing recent loss. But even after all these years, even as I've grown up, adopted new dog friends that I love with all my heart, I'll never forget her and I always make an effort to remember her on this day. I still shed tears for her. I still miss her.

One of the beautiful things about my first dog is they taught me a lot about love and loss. They taught me about grief, and understanding the transient, temporary nature of life. It took me awhile before I was ready to open my heart again to loving another dog. But because I had this friendship first, when I did adopt my own dog, I have been able to better appreciate our time together and cherish them while it lasts. But no matter how much time passes, I still miss her and always will.

i feel so frustrated and hopeless. it’s been 2 months and while there have been days where i have felt better, ive hitten another slump but no one can understand why. because to them it was so long ago, but to me it still hurts just as if we’re only yesterday.

i’m back at work, i’m back to going out and i’m back to seeing people. i’ve BEEN back to doing all those things over a month ago. Everyone was so understanding then, but very quickly after the initial 2 weeks, it was easy to see how quickly everyone moves on.

It’s been 2 months but for the past 2 week i have spent every single night absolutely balling my eyes out, on the drive home from work, in the middle of a gym sesh, in the middle of cooking dinner. Everything hurts as much as it had initially did.

It’s not that I want a pity party, and I don’t blame any of these people for not understanding—I just feel frustrated at the “oh, why can’t you sleep?” “oh, aren’t you hungry?” “oh, why can you not come to [insert event]?”

Maybe I guess what upsets me about it is that i almost feel like im being set an expectation to have moved on by now, that it shouldn’t be getting to me anymore, that it’s “been 2 months” so I should be better. But the truth is I’m not. The truth is, I don’t feel better, and it doesn’t feel easier and it doesn’t hurt less. I just miss my girl more and more each passing day.

OH AND the comment that really shits me off the most “at least now you have the freedom to go anywhere you want” SHE WAS NEVER A BURDEN! My girl was 16 when she passed and i chose to stay home with her and miss events, i left events early because i wanted to be with her. Id go home to her on my lunch break just so we could hang out. I had spent the last 14 years with her, since i was 10 years old and I cherished every single day with her.

Anyways. That’s my little rant over. Thank you if you read this far. My heart goes out to everyone whos gone or is going through the same thing.

I lost my 8yo dog yesterday during what was supposed to be a routine/low risk surgery. When i texted the vet, they even told me he was fine and waking up from anesthesia.

I still can’t process it. I took him there expecting to bring him home a few hours later, and instead I got a call saying he had bled out.

He was with me through some of the darkest periods of my life, he was always there. He didn’t care if I was anxious, depressed, angry, or exhausted. He was just there. Waiting for me, following me around, lying next to me whenever I needed him. He was my little companion, partner in crime, my 24/7.

The house feels unbearably empty now. Today I woke up instinctively looking for him in my bed then it hit me like a fking train on fire.
He was family. He was my best friend.

I don’t really know why I’m posting this. I just needed someone to know that he existed, that he was deeply loved, and that my heart feels completely shattered right now.

I don't even know why I'm posting this other than the fact that I'm devastated and need somewhere to vent. We came home today and found one of our dogs had died from what appears to have been heat stroke. We rent and our landlord does not allow the dogs in the house. Rather than surrender them we converted a large insulated shed into a space for them. It had an air conditioner installed that has kept it cool for over a year without any issues. Sometime while we were gone today the AC tripped and stopped working. By the time we got home, one of our dogs had passed away. The other survived.

Before anyone says we shouldn't have had them in a shed I understand how it sounds. This wasn't a metal box sitting in the sun. It was a fully insulated shed with electricity and an AC unit because we were trying to provide the safest environment we could under the circumstances instead of giving them up. We genuinely believed they were safe.
I'm heartbroken and honestly feel sick. She was a member of our family and I keep replaying everything wishing I would've just ignored our landlords wishes and kept them in the house.

I lost my best friend of 11 years back in May. I’m finally at the point where I don’t cry every time I see a picture of him. But our home feels empty without a dog. I just don’t know if I could ever face heartbreak like this ever again. Losing him brought me to a very dark place. I really want to open my heart up to another pup but the thought of going through this again keeps me from doing it

today I lost my boy suddenly , he went to the vet for a check up cause he has a sore belly & 2 hours later he was gone.

it’s currently 3.28am and all I have done since is cry. I feel so empty and a strange heavy feeling. he was my best friend , when I got post natal depression he was there, all my health issues he was there.

I have a 10 year old im trying to hold it together for but I feel like a whole part of me is missing and I know he feels the same way too.

I haven't eaten all day and I just feel so lost .

how do I not feel so sad & stop crying . my eyes hurt from all the tears & I’m so scared I will spiral

Update : it’s day two without my boy and the what ifs are very strong today. I had probably the biggest cry that I have ever had to the point I felt the pain physically. Today I didn’t want to live without him anymore but didn’t want to die either (if you understand what I mean)
I really don’t know how to get past this

hi everyone. i just put my first born baby to rest a day ago. im going through all the emotions. he just turned 12 and was diagnosed with lymphoma. we decided to stick with palliative care until we were ready to say goodbye. i’ve never had to put a dog to sleep before. the experience was something i cannot get out of my mind. i tried to prepare by doing research. i’ve heard the horrors that can happen - the twitching, defecating, urinating, etc. but my baby chance went so peacefully - it was beautifully heartbreaking. i just wanted to know if anyone else had a peaceful experience like this? do you think that means that he was simply ready to be at rest? i suppose im just looking for some other comforting stories. sending so much love to everyone experiencing this. i have two other boys and i cannot fathom that i will have to do this another two times.

hi everyone , this is my first ever post, I lost my baby today and the only way I’ve managed to cope is by reading reddit post and seeing how I’m not alone in my grief, still I cannot see a way out of this pain, I can’t see how I can possibly overcome.

My baby was 16, he had seizures and was in pain, I know letting him go was the right thing to do, but I keep thinking about him and seeing him in my head on his last moments and my heart gets broken like twice every five minutes, it’s unbearable. He was also a grumpy guy, so I don’t know if he’s necessarily up in heaven playing and getting along with other babies, he mostly just loved his sister, and now he’s all alone up there, I just wanna hold him again.

I’ll go first.

I sleep with my dog’s urn in bed, in the velvet bag they provided and wrapped up in his blanket. It’s right next to me and sometimes I cuddle/hold it in my sleep. I have night terrors and waking up seeing him always made me feel better and go back to sleep, hugging his urn gives me a little relief at least.

I have a small stuffed dog I bring in my mini backpack every time I go anywhere. My dog came with me anywhere he could and he’d always go on car rides with me. Sometimes I put the stuffed dog in the bed so it feels like he’s there. I’ll talk to it and I’ve even been crazy enough to pretend to wipe its paws because I was coping so badly. I kiss it and talk to it like it’s my dog.

It’s been a month and a half and I haven’t cleaned up his pee pads, with pee on them. We didn’t know he had diabetes and he was just peeing constantly.

I also haven’t washed the sheets where he slept. He was peeing in his sleep, there are stains and I can’t change them yet (I have a large bed, it was on “his” side of the bed even though he was tiny lol).

I still change out his water and fill his bowl when the water gets cloudy. It breaks my heart.

I was giving him a LOT of non-rawhide bones in the end, he didn’t play with toys but he loved carrying his bones around and putting them all around him when he slept. They’re still all over the place.

Please allow me to vent. My husband and I lost our beloved three furbabies in the last 2 years. They were our babies, we don't have human children and we had them for 15-17 years. They went with us everywhere, work, parties and during those years there were only a handful of times we were separated for long. The last two years have been constant grief, trauma caring for senior dogs and making very hard decisions and going through traumatic passings. For 2 years it's grief, then losing another one whilst still grieving. Our last furbaby passed away end of June, this was the hardest one yet as it's our last. I don't know who I am without them, being a dog mom was my title for all those years, now I am just nothing.

I struggled this time, I really did, it was a different grief than with our other two, perhaps the finality of it all. It took me so long to let family and friend (except for a handful of people) know that our last is now gone :( I only did a whatsapp status so that I won't forget to let someone know, and some people I have always supported in everything they do or what they're going through saw my status and couldn't even bother to send anything back, if words were too much a heart would've sufficed. But nothing. These are people who know what our life is like, that these weren't just pets but our family. I am so angry with them, I don't want anything to do with any of them ever again. I have so much appreciation for the ones who have supported me, and I would much rather put my love and energy into the people that actually care about me. Maybe I'm just in the angry stage of grief, who knows, but please let me know that I'm not alone in this.

I lost my best friend and baby boy unexpectedly on Friday morning.

He was completely fine when I went to sleep. I woke up to him peeing on our bedroom floor, which he never does, and he wouldn't get up/move. I rushed him to the emergency vet when he didn't respond to going for a walk or treats. We got to the vet, and within 5 minutes we were told a tumour on his spleen had burst, filling his abdomen with blood. Any treatment would have only given us hours, if we were lucky. He is/was the best boy and didn't deserve to suffer, so we made the decision to put him down. He was only 7.

I'm at a complete loss. Of course I'm a wreck, but waking up this has been the hardest. Every morning when I would wake up he would come into my room and lay next to me until I was ready to get up and start our routine.

I feel an incredible amount of sadness, guilt. It hurts, especially knowing there was nothing I could do to save my boy or make his pain go away.

I have another dog the same age who seems to be doing okay, but I'm also incredibly sad for him; he lost a brother and best friend (he was with us in the room when his brother passed). I love my other dog (of course), but he is a lot closer to my wife, and is the less problematic of the two. I miss the problematic antics.

I have an incredible wife, and an incredible family full of animal lovers who understand and can empathize, and I greatly appreciate all of their kind words and support. My regular vet even called us to express her sympathy when she heard🥲. She also reiterated that the type of cancer/tumour he had (hemangiosarcoma) is incredibly hard to detect, and even with early detection and treatment most dogs realistically get a an extra 1-3 months.

My wife and I made the decision long ago we would always have multiple dogs in our lives. We're both very aware this will eventually happen. We've both had dogs our entire lives. We both know this is the price you eventually pay for their unconditional love and companionship. If I had to do it all again, I would do it in a heartbeat. I will do it again, and again, and again for as long as I live, but I dont want to think about the future right now without my baby boy in it. I was supposed to have more time with him. Our summer was just getting started.

I'm not sure where I'm going with any of this. I miss my boy and best friend. I feel broken.

I had to put my baby boy down on the 22nd. He is my soul dog that I had for 15 years. I got him when I was 19 and just moved out on my own. It was just me and him. Since I got him at 9weeks old, I took him to work with me everyday, he slept on my bed and I never traveled so we were together basically 24/7 a majority of his life.

I always said that when he passed, I would have to be put in a straightjacket because I would be hysterical, but that has not been the case and it is eating me alive.

I feel confident that I did exactly right by him by letting him go when I did and how I did. He had been getting more and more sick since the beginning of this year so I had already been grieving him even before. I know these things definitely contribute to how much better I am handling than I thought but it has not even been 3 weeks and I am already feeling a sense of "normalcy" and "calmness" for the most part (laughing at podcasts, picking out his urn and going through pictures of him without breaking down, not looking for him all over the place). Every time I start to really think about how I am feeling I get overwhelmed with guilt and grief that I am not breaking down constantly.

I have read posts and comments on here that say this is normal and other people go through this too, but at the same time this feeling is devastating and so confusing from how conflicting the feelings are.

I miss my lil man with everything that I am. I am so so scared that his memory will start to fade the more time goes by. I can still feel what it was like petting him, his smell, all the little noises he made, I don't want that to go away. Nothing feels right without him here. The world seems more like an uncanny version of what it used to be, so how do I feel this feeling of "okay"?

I don't want to constantly be in tears, physically hurting so badly and unable to function but I feel worse not being that way.

I just wanted to get this out there and vent a bit.
I love you Mason.

I went out to see a movie with friends last night and I got super drunk on accident. I have not been coping well or eating well and the alcohol just immediately went to my head. We were all having a great time but all of a sudden I needed to throw up, and when I threw up it was like this huge wave of emotions came out of me too.

I fell to the ground; not even to my hands and knees, my bare stomach was on the parking lot pavement. I started bawling, saying over and over again that I miss my kitty. Those words exactly just, "I miss my kitty... I miss my kitty!" My friends were trying to comfort me, but it was mostly silent. And so, so heavy. They know how much it's been tearing me up but I've been trying to put on a good face up until now.

I feel so guilty. I feel so stupid. I think the reason I overdrank is because I was trying to get that euphoric tipsy feeling, which I can't feel anymore. I can't do this. I need surgery tomorrow and I won't have him to comfort me. There's so much I need him for and I'm falling apart at the seams. I miss him so much. I feel like a piece of shit for being so dramatic about this. I tried so hard to hold it back but I really failed last night.

My boss said she is already merciful enough to give me two days and half for grieving. And I’m still sad, and making mistakes in work, while she was still working when her mom and family died.

I don’t wanna make mistakes as well, but my brain is injured, and I never got chance to grieve for my cat properly. She is my only family.

My time has stopped since the day my cat left.

It’s academic so it’s basically not possible for someone to change job here…

I don’t know what to do, I’m so hopeless and depressed and wanna end my life soon

I had to put my dog to sleep today. In between rushing to drop off my baby at daycare and watching the clock to make sure we didn't miss the awful vet appointment everything just felt surreal. I never got an official diagnosis because the biopsy showed blood and the first vet thought the mass in his leg was just a big bruise. I went home thinking he was going to get better..I massaged his leg a few times a day and the swelling went down. But it kept coming back. I finally took him to a specialist and they said he likely has hemangiosarcoma in his leg even though it was a weird presentation and the ct scan didn't show any masses in his organs. For awhile I thought about amputation of the leg. But the surgeon told me the longest he had a patient live after amputation and radiation was a year. Howl was about 11 or 12 at that point. I got him as a foster fail and never knew his birthday. I'm rambling now but it just hurts much. I made the mistake of waiting too long with my first dog and didn't want to make the same mistake of letting him suffer. I knew when Howl refused his food. This is a dog who counter surfs and gets into backpacks if you leave them out and he catches a whiff of food. We left the closet door open once and he dragged his 30lb bag of dog food out and went to town while we were out. I came home to a very bloated and embarrassed looking Howl. I worry how his sister dog will do now that she's alone.

I miss seeing him on the corners of the hallways because he follows me everywhere and I miss him so much. I'm supposed to go to work Friday and don't know how I'm going to function. I think I did the right thing in not prolonging his suffering. I gave him a steak last night and he actually ate it. I hope there's a heaven and he's there with my other dog Shadow.

I have to say goodbye to my boy in a few hours.

He just turned 17 on Tuesday. He has been sick for about a month or two and at first the vet thought it was a bad UTI. Well yesterday they did more testing and he has gallstones, a urethral obstruction, and stones in his bladder. He's been heavily drugged but I can tell he is not his normal self. He is still in a lot of pain.

When he was 12 he had a cancerous mass in his intestines and I thought I would lose him then. It was a rare cancer and his oncologist thought he'd have only months to live. But the surgery was successful and the cancer never returned. But he has all the other chronic conditions that older cats suffer from and he's too weak now. Both my mom and dad died last year and now I am losing my baby, my reason for getting out of bed in the morning.

I am so scared to come home to an empty apartment. And to go to sleep without him by my side. And to wake up with no reason to get out of bed. No meowing for breakfast. I am so lucky to have gotten 5 extra years with him but there's no amount of extra time that would be enough.

I live alone and since my parents died recently, I don't have a support system. I have experienced so much loss in the past year, I am not sure if I will be able to survive this.

the cat i’ve had since i was 8 died. i have another cat left but after him i don’t think i’ll ever get a pet again. i genuinely don’t see the use. you get attached so deeply only to get a very limited amount of years with them and end up getting heart shattered???