April 29, 2010 – Went on “Dog Talk” at WAMC (Northeast Public Radio) today to talk about animal grieving. Lots of calls, lots of guilt, lots of loss. I am much enjoying writing about animal grieving, I have a lot of feeling about it. I’ve evolved quite a bit in the past couple of years. Divorce and a meltdown does open you up. It is clear that people are feeling more and more like their dogs are their children in many ways, and while this has concerned me, I am coming to understand it better. I think I needed to be opened up emotionally to see it more clearly, and that has happened and is happening.

Dogs and children are very different things to me, yet I see how the emotional attachments can be very simliar, and equally powerful. A truck driver called in. He rode around the country with his dog, gave him injections, cries when he thinks of him. It was a powerful call and I am seeing the pain and loss more clearly, and perhaps feeling it more acutely. I’ve lost a lot, in my life and with animals. And I’ve gained a lot. Haven’t sorted all of that out.