my 10 year old jack russell died very suddenly at home about one week ago his best friend is my 8 year old female jack russell who is now grieving. we are trying to keep her happy and feel needed and loved, but how do we help her when we are at work all day.? i leave both a radio & tv on for her, but she still looks for him, even though she was with him when he died.

GiGi1

I am very sorry for your loss. I recently lost a pet and was in the same situation. GiGi and Mack were very close and when he died she became very depressed. She stopped eating, playing, etc. All I can tell you is it takes time. It took GiGi two weeks to get to some normalcy. You have to show your pet a LOT of extra attention. I work also and that did make it a little difficult, but when I came in it was all about her. Me and my daughter talked to her all the time. We cuddled her and took her on lots of long walks. We also took her out to the college and let her run on the track. That was something different and she really enjoyed it. My best advice is...make the time that you can spend with your pet QUALITY time! Don't just go through your usual routine. Also, try to do something different and special. It will take a while, but he will pull through! Good Luck!

labman

Losing a dog is hard. When my vet said my 13 old Lab had a tumor, I didn't even ask. It was $1200, but I hope have her a few more years.

Do you have doggy day care available? I am not sure how an 8 year old would react to being with a number of other strange dogs. You could discuss it with the staff.

ballengerb1

I almost cried when I read your post. Dogs feel loss like people, maybe more so because they don't understand death, just loss. Some people may disagree with me but I'd get her a kitten. My cat and dog have become best friends and don't seem to mind they are different.