I do not think anyone should be offended by your post about your parents
dog passing away.  Although some of us just have ferrets, we will all have
to experience the loss at one time or another because our pets simply do
not live long enough.  you post specifically touched me because I have two
boxers and although they are healthy and well, a fellow boxer owner has
just lost hers to cancer, so my thoughts have been on mortality these past
few days.  Non-animal people do not understand how the grief over a dead
pet can equal that if the pet was human.  We have a bond with our pets...
one that is stronger than some of our human relationships...
 
Here is a letter...it could actually be used by a ferret owner too..if
needed...but it is written from the dog's point of view as she would be in
doggie heaven.  In reality the father of the family wrote it addressed to
his wife and children to help them deal with the loss.  They also had to
make the difficult decision to put their dog to sleep...
 
http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/annie.html
 
Also here is one of the websites that has the Rainbow Bridge poem...you
can also add a tribute your pet on the sites Tribute Pages......
 
http://rainbow-bridge.org/bridge.htm
 
I hope this helps you family to deal with their loss.
 
Melissa and Master Yoda
Lucas and Bossk (boxers)
[log in to unmask]
 
[Moderator's note: Sometimes when there is a personal emergency affecting
a subscriber it's appropriate to let such posts through.  But at the same
time I feel we have to be careful to concentrate on ferret-realted posts.
I do think the above post is somewhat related and can be useful to us all,
though the line does have to be drawn someplace: if posts stray too far
from ferrets please understand if some don't make it into the FML.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 3281]