Who Gets Custody of the Pets?
by Kitty Walker, LMSW-ACP Dear Kitty, My boyfriend and I have two Pugs; Angus & Ryker. We adopted them jointly 2 years ago. Recently, my boyfriend and I have not been getting along. I know we won’t be staying together much longer. I know there is a good chance that I will never see […]
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When Will Grief End?
by Kitty Walker, LMSW-ACP Dear Kitty, On January 1, 2001, I had to take my best friend of 15+ years for the last ride of her precious life. Making the decision to put her to sleep was the HARDEST thing I’ve ever had to do. I am a Paramedic Firefighter and I’m around death […]
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When is the Right Time to Replace a Pet?
by Kitty Walker, LMSW-ACP Dear Kitty, Hi, my name is Shawn. I’m 14 and from New Jersey. My dog, Holly, just recently died on July 7th and it was the only companion, friend, family member that I have ever truly loved with all my heart. She had a very rare blood disease and she […]
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Traumatic death of a pet
by Kitty Walker, LMSW-ACP Dear Kitty, After having my cat for almost five years, I was horrified and greatly saddened to discover his body on the side of the road! The poor thing was not intact! He looked so bad. Apparently, he had been hit by a car, truck whatever! I loved him so […]
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Second Year of Loss
by Karin Baltzell, Ph.d Dear Karin, It is soon the second year after the loss of my cat. She was my baby and my only real friend. The death was awful and I was suicidal and depressed in spite of therapy and the comforting cliches we all tend to use when death intrudes. I […]
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My Little Jack Russell
by Karin Baltzell, Ph.d Dear Karin: My little Jack Russell was killed 5-5-03 & I feel it was my fault as every morning, 5am I would let her out with me to run back & forth to my daughters, who is 4 houses away. Only this morning she looked directly at me & ran […]
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My Dog Drowned
by Karin Baltzell, Ph.d Dear Karin, I lost my dog, Buster almost two months ago very tragically. I let him go out to go to the bathroom like I had done for 15 years and I walked away for a minute. I looked out the window and noticed he had fallen into my almost […]
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Getting Another Pet
by Karin Baltzell, Ph.d Dear Karin, I was just searching the web for grievance websites (my grandmother just passed away) when i found your column. My pet cat, Kitty actually was her name, died more than 2 years ago. I was away at the time, I had started a new job 1000 miles away […]
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Euthanasia Guilt and Your Pet
by Kitty Walker, LMSW-ACP Dear Kitty, How do we work through the guilt of putting down our 10-year-old rottie, even though she was fully aware and mentally sharp but arthritis had made her back legs useless? A and T Dear friends, I am sorry that you had to go through this experience with […]
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Dog’s Recent Death
by Karin Baltzell, Ph.d Dear Karin, I am having a hard time coping with my recent dogs death. It started back in Feb. when he started becoming sick we didn’t know why. Well soon they took an X-ray of his stomach to find out ” they thought he had a tumor and wanted to […]