How did you get through it? Does this pain ever go away?
For most people, the pain gets easier to live with over time. It may not fully go away, and it can come back at times. There is no set timeline.
A real example
Blue Cross in the UK runs a pet loss phone line that gets at least 30,000 calls a year. A counselor there says grief never fully goes away. A cat with the same coat or a Facebook memory can bring it back.
News, 公視新聞網, 7 Mar 2025Read the original
What others said
「My dog died, and I want to know how others felt after losing their dog.」
Shared online (reworded) Reddit, Asia-Pacific, Oct 2026「Our dog died last month and the whole family is down, so how long did it take you to recover?」
Shared online (reworded) Yahoo!知恵袋, Japan, Oct 2026「My dog died in an accident yesterday and it's too much to bear, so how did you get through losing a pet?」
Shared online (reworded) forum, Europe, Oct 2026What people do in different places
Call a pet loss support line and talkUK: run by Blue Cross, with at least 30,000 calls a year
Call a vet school pet loss hotlineUS: Cornell, answered by trained vet students
Join a monthly online support group at an animal hospitalUS: Cornell animal hospital, for owners of recent patients
Join a government pet loss support courseSouth Korea: 2026 pilot, open to those who have lost a pet
Make a drawing or a grave marker, or hold a small ritualTaiwan: suggested by psychiatrist Yang Tsung-tsai
Talk with others who have lost a petUS: suggested in the AVMA pet loss brochure
Sources
6 posts from owners online: reworded and anonymised, showing only the platform, region and month. We keep the original links privately.
Updated 25 Oct 2026. This page updates daily from owners’ posts.