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

[tippy2k2]

Yes, I took almost an entire week off when my first dog died...

Wow, an entire week? I'm personally cool with that but I am curious: Was it work or school and were they fine with that? I think most employers are understanding about one day but a week is quite a long time for a lot of employers to accept...(hell, my mom's company gives you three days when your mother/father go and most people would agree that that is a bigger deal than pets).

 

[Twilight_guy]

No. I didn't take time off when my grandmother died, I'm not going to take time off for my dog.

 

[Dragoon]

Nope it's just a fact of life, you've just gotta move on and remember the good times.

 

[recurve6]

Yes and no. My parents elected to put my blonde lab of 8 years down 2 weeks before spring semester ended....without telling me. I was unceremoniously informed while moving my stuff out of my dorm, which put a damper over the beginning of summer.

I will never forgive their treachery.

 

[flying_whimsy]

Sadly, I could not take any time to mourn the loss of our first dog. The rest of the family was completely broken up over it, so I had to take care of the cremation arrangements and stuff such that I had to the rock everyone else relied upon.

I have two other dogs that are getting on in years; trying hard to think about what will happen with them.

 

[Gevas]

I didn't take a day off in 10th grade when my dad died, much less a pet.

Know who sitting around in a house is useful to? No one.

 

[BeeGeenie]

We've been through many pets.
There were a few buried out in the back yard, but I don't think anyone took time off from anything for the burials.
Then again, they had all generally been sick for a while, so we knew it was coming. Probably would have been more traumatic if it had happened suddenly.
I think my brother was probably affected more than me. The cat always liked him best.
I'll be sad when the latest dog goes though. She's a good old gal.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Yep.

As a society we really don't do a very good job of processing and/or coping with grief. There's a lot of bottling up, and a lot of repressing, and a lot of stiff upper lips, and I know a lot of people with some pretty deep seated psychological scars as a result of it. If I'm grieving, I take time off work. Because seriously, fuck work. It's important, but it does not define my life. It's just a pet? It's just a job. You can rationalize anything as not mattering if you want to. I love animals. I get upset if YOUR pet dies, never mind mine.

 

[parahuman]

It was a non-factor for me.
When I was close to graduating high school my pet cat (who we had for 17 years) declined in health very rapidly. Struggling with basic functions like cleaning, climbing, eating, etc. We took him to the vet and were told he had an enlarged heart and his condition was due to his age. We were considering putting him to sleep when he seemed to gain a second wind. He was almost like his old self again and even the vet couldn't figure it out based on his previous condition. We had another month or two with him and then the week after I graduated he just crashed. Labored breathing, wouldn't eat or drink water, All in under 24 hours. My mother was on her way home from work when this happened and we were waiting for her to get home to take him to the vet. There were a couple times while we waited (around twenty minutes) when we were sure he was going to go but he just held on while we petted him and tried to be as soothing as possible. We finally got him there and by this point while he was doing better his nose and gums had gone bluish. They checked him out and we all soothed and petted him when they gave him the injection.

I took it really hard, this cat had been around since I was a baby so it was really like losing a family member for me. I don't believe in any special circumstances or mumbo jumbo around the whole thing, but I sometimes like to think he held on just long enough to see me through the first chapter of my life.

*End Bawwww Session*

 

[chadachada123]

I had a black lab who also lived to be twelve, who was put down in my arms and the arms of the rest of my family.

There was no way in hell my parents could have convinced me to go to school the next day, and I don't think they would have even tried. It may have been my senior year of high school, but if anything, that made it worse, having lived with her basically the entirety of life that I could remember at that point.

I may have skipped two days of school, I don't know. I do remember telling one teacher the day before that if I'm absent some day soon, it's likely that something bad happened to my sick pet. She totally understood.

I have complete sympathy, OP, even if it's a zombie thread from a week ago. Hell, I've cried about Holly's death as recently as several months ago, and it's been over four years since her death.

Shit, now my eyes are teared up. Ugh. Memories.

 

[IndomitableSam]

Yes. And I will always do so. My cats are just as much my family as my mom, dad, and sister. I will take as much time as I need, fuck work.

I took a couple days off this spring when my grampa died - one for the funeral, and the other the day he died. I got a call that he was going downhill and it would only be a matter of days, probably, but I wanted to go see him so I ditched a meeting, caught a bus to the hospital, and made it there a half hour before he passed.

Thankfully, I'm a librarian, so crazy cat lovers are the norm.

 

[Jfswift]

Usually not although I'm sorry to hear about your pet.

 

[DarthSka]

I had a cat for about 14 years before he died in 2008. He was an outside cat so he just walked off to the woods one day, which he did plenty before, so I didn't know for sure if he had died. After about a week, we pretty much figured it out. I was depressed as hell, but I went to school anyway. And now that I'm remembering it again, I am once again sad. Yay.

 

[tippy2k2]

I am honestly surprised.

So many people would pick their pet over a stranger who is drowning, but so few would take a day off to mourn when said pet dies.

To be honest...I was thinking the same exact thing. Maybe they just care that little about strangers

Personally, I'd like to think that people didn't really take that thread seriously and are taking this one a bit more seriously. Although it is the internet so you never really know...

 

[corvuscorrax]

I took one day of school off after my dad commited suicide.

So if you took a day off for your pet I gotta say you're a weenie.

 

[JochemHippie]

Yes, I took almost an entire week off when my first dog died...

Wow, an entire week? I'm personally cool with that but I am curious: Was it work or school and were they fine with that? I think most employers are understanding about one day but a week is quite a long time for a lot of employers to accept...(hell, my mom's company gives you three days when your mother/father go and most people would agree that that is a bigger deal than pets).

Nah, where I study they don't really care either way, as long as I finish it with good grades. Work I didn't take off from cause it helped me take my mind off things.

 

[karloss01]

I'm pretty emotional when it comes to death, the death of my dogs have been hard and so has those of my relatives. lost my first dog at the age of 6, use to sleep on my bed and use her as a pillow. she had a heart problem and had died out of sight of my mum and sister (3 at the time), it wasn't until my dad came home and found that he couldn't get through the gate and she had passed away behind it.

my second and third dogs were sisters and both lived to about 13, we got them a few months after the first dog as I nor my dad could live without one. both had to be put down due to complications, the smaller of the two sisters got an infection in her womb and she began to rot from the inside out (at first we thought it was just her in season but the blood got heavier and thicker) and then the larger one he legs went and was unable to walk anymore two years later. the larger one hit me a lot harder as i had depression (due lack of employment and failing academically) at the time and she was always there to comfort me, i realised that her time was really close when i took her for her walk and only made it down the hill before collapsing in her own crap. I sat down beside her and cried my eyes out until some stranger helped me carry her back home.

my current dog is the first male we've personally had (my Nana had one) and he's the most loving animal i've ever known. when his time comes (which better not be for at least another decade)I will most likely be unable to do anything for that day (maybe even the week).

Spoiler: first - Tasha

Spoiler: second - Zante

Spoiler: third - Laska

Spoiler: current - Kane

Spoiler: Extra: My Nana's dog Max

My Nana got him at 12 weeks old, he only lived till three as he had become out of control and almost killed my granddad by dragging him in front of a car. only my dad was able to handle him and even then it was straining at best.
he went from this

to this

he was an awesome dog and it was an unfortunate end to him, if we didn't have Laska and Zante we would have taken him.

 

[Dawns Gate]

I remember my first dog I had, it was as old as I was (11) and grew up with me. When I went into the back yard in the morning it was laying under a tree very relaxed and just taking a nap. Once I realized he was dead, I covered him with a blanket and went to school. When I got home I carried it into the woods and some of my friends helped me bury it.

I didn't feel upset, I knew it was going to happen eventually.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

My cat, the only friend I had for years, nice little creature, very gentle with me, killed the fuck out of people who bothered me with her little claws, my sister used to harrass me, then later she'd be screaming in agony from the cat chomping her a good one on her knuckle or giving her arm a few scars... had my kittyfriend for 12 years, she stopped eating, and was sickly, we think someone poisonned her, some of our neighbours were assholes... she died, and I was so fucked from the meds I was on the previous years, that I couldn't bring myself to cry... so instead I shaved my beard(the only other thing that I took pride in at the time, it was rather bushy) completely off, and bought and lit an entire box of candles one by one, as I sat up all night recalling all the memories up to and including the way she meowed at me and came up and let me pet her one last time before she went and took a nap on my mom's pillow and never woke up...

So many fun wacky good times...

I'm sad now.