Heidi was a sweetheart: Dealing with the death of beloved pets

Anyone who has ever had a beloved pet knows the pain when that pet dies.

My sister, Mary, always had cats and dogs, so she’s talked to me about how hard it is. Not long ago she lost her dogs, Stella and Tommy, in the same year. She says, “They are forever missed.” I think that captures it. Long-term grief happens with pets, too.

And within the last year, her beautiful cat Delilah died. That’s a lot of loss.

Now she has a young doggie, Vinny, who is a Malshi mix (Maltese and Shih Tzu). And she still has her adult cat, Milo, who thinks he’s a dog I guess. He’s bigger than Vinny and they are the best of friends.

My friend Karen has had two sweet dachshunds, Cubby Bear and Heidi, for many years, so they became elderly in doggie years. The last few years they’ve had lots of medical issues. But with Karen’s attentive care, they’ve always recovered and made it though.

She has gone to great efforts and expenses to overcome their health problems and emergencies. And she is an expert at caring for dachshunds. She’s had six or more over the years.

But this last health crisis with Heidi was simply the end. Her little body just wore out. So very sadly Heidi died. Awful. Cubby Bear is very motherly and helped a lot tending to Heidi as she declined. Cubby Bear made sure Heidi was covered by her blanket and cuddled with her. But she couldn’t be saved.

I had met Heidi and heard a lot about her over the years. She was indeed a sweetheart.

So now Cubby Bear doesn’t have a doggie friend and must be a little confused. Heidi had stayed a couple days at the vet clinic before, but this time she didn’t come back home.

Karen started searching for a new dachshund puppy and located a darling one. A short-haired, light beige dog. Very cute face. Really young. She brought her home just a week or so ago.

The point is: There’s something about having pets in the house that is cozy and fun. And they help us in many ways.

I just heard a review of an article in the Atlantic magazine, “The Cat Who Saved Me” by Tom Nichols. It’s about Carla and how she improved his life. She did it by putting structure into his days during a troubled time, giving affection and literally by alerting him to a house fire and getting his family out of the house in time. And now he’s dealing with grief over her death. I’m going to look it up.

• Susan Anderson-Khleif of Sleepy Hollow has a doctorate in family sociology from Harvard, taught at Wellesley College and is a retired Motorola executive. Contact her at sakhleif@aol.com.