Poll: Did you take time off of work/school when your pet died?

[tippy2k2]

First off, to bring everyone down: My chocolate lab of 12 years Major died late last night. He had cancer and couldn't breath so my mum brought him in to have him put down (I'm 26 and don't live there anymore. She called everyone this morning). Now luckily(?) this occurred now over the weekend but I was at work doing OT when I was told. Because it was OT, I was able to just leave with no consequences since I found that it hit me much harder than I had expected (especially considering we knew this was coming soon).

Like everything tragedy in life, this gave me a good forum topic: If you've had a pet die, did you take off of work/school because of it? If you have not but own a pet, do you think you will? If you don't have a pet...well...you should go get one because that slobbery bastard was awesome.

*EDIT Here's my buddy!

Spoiler

 

[Jonluw]

Can't remember doing so, no.
All I remember is that my mom woke me up early one morning, telling me to "come outside quick [cat's name] is dead", and that after finding her lying on the ground outside our front door I buried her in the garden.

To be fair, I think she died on a weekend or something.

Not that I would have taken time off from school if she hadn't. I loved her and all, but I'm not the type to be emotionally devastated over death.

 

[MellowFellow]

No I didn't but I knew a couple days before that my parents were going to put down our dog, he had some kind of cancer, I can't remember off the top of my head right now. I'm at college, so I hadn't seen him in a few weeks and considered going back home to spend another day with my dog, but decided I preferred not to see him in the state he was in and just remember him the way he was. He died almost a year ago now, he was an awesome dog, I will miss him.

 

[Padwolf]

I wanted to but alas I did not. When my first cat died I couldn't focus on school for a few days. When my first dog died I couldn't focus on school for a long time. When my cat died last year I couldn't focus on university for a while. The last one hit me the hardest. If I could have sued the vet I would have. "It's just a cold" my fecking ass. Turns out she had cancer. Did 5 blood tests. They said it was a cold. A fecking cold. Still partly blame myself for that one, should have said or did something sooner. She spent a month in pain and the vets gave us the wrong information. I will never forget that morning.

I wish I could have taken a day off. Would have helped clear my head a bit instead of going back into uni and not absorbing anything that happened in lectures that week.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Mine is a heart of stone... (apparently)

I didn't even take any time off when my grandmother died... and I only took half a day off to go to a family friend's funeral, much less take time off for a pet that died. My old man, on the other hand... he loved his dog and agonised for a long time when she was killed... :/

 

[the doom cannon]

I technically didn't take time off, but i didnt go to classes or anything and had a friend turn in all my work for a week. I was in my sophomore year of college, and my cat of like 8 years, my grandfather, one of his friends that I knew well, and my great aunt all passed within a week. I wasn't the happiest guy around for a while

 

[A.A.K]

Nope...but I also didn't take time off when friends and family died, so my opinion doesn't really affect you.

 

[Weealzabob]

I would call it a non factor because I was basically having a gap year when both my cat and dog died. But I probably would have done, because I was mostly non functional for the days following.

 

[Shinsei-J]

only once and I was 13 years old at the time.
My dog had suddenly gotten sick so my mother took him to the vet and got told we had to put him down within the day.
Took the afternoon off and the next day because this was my best friend and there wasn't a point in my life before this that he wasn't there, still feel like crying just thinking about him.

 

[DugMachine]

Well my cat died in december during my vacation so I had time to get my self together.

But if I ever have a beloved pet die and the next day I have to work I'll probably take the day off. I'm a complete wreck when my animals die

 

[Luap26]

My cat died from a third stroke(she shrugged off the first 2 she was a boss like that) when she was 23. I took the rest of the week off. She died on a Wednesday. I was 21 when she died, I had, had her all my life and I was devastated.

 

[Mr F.]

Well, No. I did not. I was young at the time and our cat (That was only a few years younger than I was) died of Feline Aids.

Shit happens. Animals are animals, you cry and you get over it. I knew that age... *tries to remember* 9? 10? Something like that? You get the idea.

Then again, I did not take a day off after one of my ex partners died, nor will I be able to take the day off when my family members eventually kick it. It aint that I am cold (Or strong) it is just I am not in the "Take a day off working ever" profession. You have to make do. Sure, I would take the day off for the actual Funeral (And have done in the past).

But, if I am honest, the easiest way for me to deal with any loss (From pets, friends, family members, loved ones) is to just work. And work hard.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

Back in like 07 or 08 the family dog (his name was Stumpy) died of being extremely old. He was 16 and he was a Mini Dachsund. I didn't take time off of work but i did show up late after i had called them and waited for the rest of the family to come home. It hit me more because i was the only one home and he walked up to me and plopped at my feet then went.

 

[dangoball]

Our Belgian shepherd died last summer holiday at the age of 13.5. All of us saw it coming long beforehand and even our dad teared up (which was what made me loose it and start crying). The saddest thing for me though was not our beloved pets death but how my older brother acted when we buried him. Since we have quite a big garden and many trees and bushes our mom wanted to bury him and put a bush over him. Understandably she wanted it to be perfect and asked us to fix this and that several times. And my brother just flew of the handle and strolled off. I was really disappointed with him, because I though he might understand how mom feels and put up with her wishes, but he didn't. And as you would expect, it hurt our mom as well.

To answer the question: I wouldn't take time off, but I wouldn't be of much use either. That's the way I was brought up. When you gotta work, you gotta work. Your personal life has nothing to do with it.

 

[Starik20X6]

Hasn't happened yet, but based on my reaction when my dog went missing for a few hours, I don't think I'll handle his death very well. He is a terrier though, and those things live for eons in dog-time so I've got a while before I need to worry about it.

 

[sextus the crazy]

We've run through about 4 cats and 1 dog in the last 4 years or so. We just happened to pick the ones that no one else would take (i.e. noticeable medical problems). I never took time off, but their deaths didn't hurt me as much as they hurt my parents.

 

[Dags90]

Nope. I didn't even take off classes when my grandfather died even though I had bronchitis and a sinus infection, I think it was the week before midterms.

 

[Mattlore]

When my cat of 14 years died years and years ago from a stroke I took the day off work. She had been with my for so many years and she really was my baby. Every time I was getting in shit from my mom she would jump up on my mom's lap and start rubbing against her as if saying "No no, stop yelling at him and pet me! See, it's ok!" She would sleep with me and would always jump up on my lap for pettins'

I ended up waking up to her yowling in pain one morning and found her underneath my mom's chair, unable to use her back legs. She was panting and drooling and seemed like she was in so much pain. My mom took me to the vet as soon as they opened and they told me there was nothing they could do for her. I was destroyed...I ended up going through an entire box of kleenex as I said good bye to her. And the hardest part is that when I held her for one last time, she stopped panting, yowling and drooling and just purred in my lap as I told her it was going to be okay and that she wasn't going to hurt any more.

I still get a bit of a knot in my throat when I tell the story (Even now).