>>106139510
I think you’re coming at this from a position of never having cared for an animal, or you’re just being edgy for fun, but I’ll answer anyway.
When you care for an animal, they become a part of you in the same way a family member does. It’s not as strong of a feeling, obviously, but it’s the same kind of connection and attachment. It’s even stronger because you’re the one looking out for them. You become used to their presence. Losing a pet feels like a core part of you has been ripped away. It’s even worse because, since you’re the one responsible for them, you will always feel as if you’re at fault for it happening. Even if it’s completely irrational, you feel like you could have done more. It’s like a form of survivor’s guilt, but it’s closer to how a parent would feel if they escaped a house fire but their child died in it. My cat got cancer, and there was nothing I could do about it, and it was horrible to watch him very quickly drain of all the life in him that I’d been so accustomed to seeing for years. I still feel guilty about it even though I know I couldn’t have done anything except what I did, which was to make him feel as loved and happy as possible in his last days.
For her sake, I hope the loss was sudden, unexpected, and unexplainable. Counterintuitively, that will make it easier for her to cope with it, because she’ll have an easier time understanding that it wasn’t her fault, and she won’t have had to see her cat in the process of dying.
