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1. Recognize that your animal companion's death is a major loss
resulting in significant grief.
2. Take care of yourself ; nurture yourself in ways that comfort
you --- your body, mind and spirit are grieving a major loss.
Be gentle with yourself and take care of you.
3. Find nurturing people to support you --- your grief and your
accompanying feelings are too tender to be trampled or minimized.
4. Seek out specific resources for pet loss, e.g., books, web-sites.
Think about joining a pet loss support group, seeking out a counselor,
or calling a pet loss hot line.
5. Consider creating a memorial or ritual to honor your animal
companion.
6. Remember that the course of grief is not particularly smooth
and doesn't necessarily follow specific stages. Be aware that
holidays, birthdays, and anniversary dates can be especially difficult.
7. Know you may have conflicting feelings when thinking of bringing
another animal companion into your life.
8. Honor your own time lines and experience -- don't let others
tell you where you should be in your grief or what you should
be feeling.
9. Different members of a family may grieve in different ways
and have different time lines.
10. Children grieve too --- they also need support --- support
them at their level of need and development.
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