Empty

There is something I think needs to be said, and I speak not only as someone who has suffered this loss, but also as someone who has worked as a volunteer grief counselor for people who have lost pets. Simply put, there is no perfect exit for them from the mortal coil that is both free from pain and emotional distress. People will constantly chastise themselves. They should have put the animal down sooner. They should have sought a different form of treatment. They should have waited a week longer. Or any of countless other variables.

But none of them would have altered the end result. They are all just one of a thousand different paths that lead to the same place.

It’s amazingly easy in hindsight to see a different path as better and more humane and chastise yourself for not taking it, but had you taken one of those thousand different paths you will see from it a thousand more paths that you could have taken instead and chastise yourself again. And none of them, despite whatever alternate narrative you may conceive in your head, are actually “better.”

Each path ends in the same place and none of them lead you through free from pain for yourself or your friend. As long as you have acted out of love and respect and done the best you can for them you absolutely must absolve yourself of any guilt or questioning. Your friend never asked for anything other than love, and if that is what you have given along the way, don’t fall into the trap of doubting yourself. If your actions were guided by love and respect, free yourself from doubt and know that whatever path you chose at the end was the right one.

originally posted by hexenkult

Mal

2010 – 2022