That just breaks my heart. I had read that if you show the dead dog to his companion and let them sniff, then they know that they are gone. We did that with our first pair. Maybe if kept him from waiting for her to walk in the door. Can’t stand it that your dog actually cried for him and never picked up that toy again. That is just heart wrenching.
I didn’t mean to make you sad. The Golden puppy had a happy life. She was depressed for a day, or so, and then she became just a happy puppy. But, she wouldn’t play with the rubber toy. What’s more, she seemed to sense that he wasn’t coming back when my husband and Wolfie left for the vet. She chased them to the door and watched out the window as they left and kicked up a fuss — unusual.
What was so strange is tht she was used to Wolfie going places without her because he would go to the groomer and the vet all the time, and she would stay home. But she knew something was up the morning he went to the vet the last time. Probably because I was crying. But also because he was suffering from seizures and was on anti-seizure meds.
Unfortunately, he got worse after every seizure (despite all of our efforts to keep his system in balance) until he just wasn’t right any more. I have no doubt that the Golden could smell the imbalance in his system. At the end he tried to bite us and would stand right in front of you in the house and pee on your shoe.
Cats also.
When I had to have one of my cats put to sleep after he developed a brain condition that caused seizure-like bursts of uncontrolled aggression, I brought his body home from the vet and laid the cardboard “casket” the vet gave us down on the floor and opened it. Both of the girls came up to sniff and nuzzle the body. After that, they’d always go to an old scratching box we kept because it was his....it’ll be 6 years this Feb and they still seem to go to it for comfort, and as long as they do, we’ll keep it.
The boys we got a few months after he passed have only the most passing interest in the scratching box and much prefer the newer ones that smell like catnip, not “unknown cat”.