>I read (actually try not to) all these gut wrenching, heart breaking
>painful posts of losses.  This is a very naive question but ... how do you
>fellow readers, read these things and get on with your day?  I read a post
>like the one about Josie and am nearly in tears!  It takes me hours to get
>over it, and it didn't even happen to me!
 
Anonymous Poster,
 
You are not alone.
 
A wise FML poster once said something along the lines of "When we have pets
with shorter life spans than our own, we set ourselves up for heartache".
So true.
 
I generally try to skip these sad posts.  Not because I don't care.  I do
care.  When I lost my first ferret, I cried for three days.  When I lost my
second, I was able to hold it together a little better, but still shed a
lot of tears, so I know what the posters are going through.  It's just that
when I read them I always reflect on my two who have passed on and end up
with tears streaming down my cheeks.  In fact I write this with tears in my
eyes having read the poems posted tonight (tonight in my corner of the
globe).  I'm just glad that I receive the digest in the evening and there
is no one here to see me when I lose it.  Who said big boys don't cry?
 
It hurts when a ferret passes on, but nothing helps to (partially) fill
that hole than another ferret.  When I lost my first ferret, I didn't think
I could ever care for another.  In fact it was about four months before I
could even contemplate it.  All I can say is that it subsequent deaths
seem to get a little easier, but it is never easy to handle death, in my
experience.
 
-David, Thor & Grover
RIP Xena & Rumpatumpskin.
[Posted in FML issue 2650]