Rescuing Sprite

A couple of days after Mahone died, a friend gave me a copy of Rescuing Sprite. I was a bit flabbergasted she would give me such a book and promised to read it soon.

It is a lovely story about a man who talks his family into acquiring a dog and his family loved having a pet so much they look for and adopt Sprite. They were informed Sprite was about 3-6 years old. Sprite adapts quickly to their household and everybody loves him. After some time they realize Sprite is much older than they believed and he has some undiagnosed health problems.

The author discovers that no matter who we are or what we do we all seem to feel the same way about our pets. Our pets seem to occupy a part of our soul that defies explanation. I loved this book and I'm glad I took the time to read it.

Grief

I expected to be devastated by letting Mahone go; however I was totally taken aback by Bob and Marley's grief. Bob has been cuddly and refused to be more than 4 feet away from me at any time; normally he is very aloof and while very curious he does not feel the need to interact with me regularly. He has also become very vocal, meowing and chirping as he follows me around.

Marley seemed to realize Mahone was missing at dinner time. She was looking around for Mahone when I called her to dinner. She ran into her crate and stared at Mahone's food bowl spot. She lightly whined and refused her dinner and breakfast. On our walk she didn't spend much time sniffing and she kept a close eye on me. I tried to entice her to play and she refused, she just looked away and sighed.

This is my favorite picture of my two troublemakers.
They spent a great deal of time sleeping together and following each other around.

It seems very easy to find books that refer to human grief at the loss of a pet; however, I have not found anything that addresses the grief other pets feel at the loss of a friend. I've totally been taken aback by the level of distress they seem to be feeling. I'm sure many people will say they are reacting to my grief; however, I think they actually notice Mahone is missing and they are grieving. I'm not sure what I can do to make them feel better.