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Remembering pets after owners die
Waterbury Republican-American ^ | January 25, 2009 | Josh Shaffer

Posted on 01/25/2009 11:32:42 AM PST by Graybeard58

When Anna Ruth Jones died in Durham, N.C., last week, her obituary listed a handful of cousins and special friends. But the most prominent survivor, the only one described as "cherished," was Sir Rufus of Iredell, her black and white cat.

The feline's elevation to grieving relative represents a new step for household pets across the country — special mentions in notice of their owners' passing.

On a single day last week, dogs and cats merited a spot in five the North Carolina News & Observer's obituaries — more than a quarter of that day's total. Buzzy the canine pal. Beloved dog Sport. Simba. Trixie. Mikey. And Sir Rufus.

"That was her child," said Jones' neighbor Perry Norris, describing the cat's royal air. "He was a tuxedo type."

Regard for pets has steadily grown to the point where some enjoy health insurance benefits. Lawyers now build careers around defending furry clients. And books can be bought explaining how to name a pet executor, along with instructions for obtaining a pet's living will.

New York hotel maven Leona Helmsley famously left $12 million to her Maltese, Trouble. In North Carolina, High Point publisher Randall B. Terry bequeathed an estimated $1 million to the care of his six golden retrievers.

For Deborah Bowen, a social work professor at UNC-Wilmington, mention in obits is a natural shift. As society has become isolated by computers, cable television, job transfers and 50-hour work weeks, pets fill a void too wide for busy humans, said Bowen, author of "A Good Friend for Bad Times: Helping Others Through Grief."

Look at the way medicine for animals has changed, she argued. Families routinely pay vet bills that top $1,000, getting treatment once reserved for humans.

It's natural, she said, that the same regard would extend to death — regardless of who's in the casket.

"If the pet survives you, you put the pet in the obit," Bowen said. "There is that sense of loss for animals, and there is an adjustment. Dogs will grieve the loss of another dog in the house so much that they won't eat."

Jones, a Durham, N.C., nurse who died Jan. 6, had little family other than Sir Rufus. Finding a new home for him has been tough, her neighbor said, because the animal won't tolerate a household where he isn't top cat and can monopolize attention.

Sometimes, an animal wins top billing. In New Hampshire, the former copy desk chief of the Portsmouth Herald sometimes saw cats and dogs listed by elderly women. But once, a few years back, he ran across a cancer victim who listed — in an obituary he penned himself — a pig as his first survivor.

"It threw us for a loop," wrote Mike Sullivan, who has moved on to public relations and cannot recall the pig's name. "It went down as one of the most bizarre obits I'd ever edited and published."

But when Dorothy Strickland Johnson of Knightdale, N.C., died Jan. 7, her five pets made the obituary alongside her daughter, son, and husband of 64 years.

Luke, a Llasa apso, was adopted when the Johnsons dealt with the pain of another daughter's death. For a couple in their 80s, Luke provided a reason to push on and to remember.

"So now," said Susan Johnson, their daughter, "my Dad and Luke will be going on their journey without my Mom."

As she spoke, you could hear Luke barking in the background — a fellow relative speaking his piece.


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS:
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To: Cailleach

Oh, my I must ask, (trembling in fear at the answer)....who gets the Rumbug? Last time he was here for an extended visit he almost ate my house!

And do not mention my dear departed duddles. The thought of them makes me very sad. Poor things.


41 posted on 01/26/2009 6:09:16 AM PST by kalee (01/20/13 The end of an error.)
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To: MetsJetsandNets

Are you my next door neighbor? lol


42 posted on 01/26/2009 6:32:56 AM PST by Cailleach
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To: kalee

hahaha! You’d better say prayers every night...because you and Papa would get a ready made family. You will have to make special arrangements in your home for Princess Bella...she doesn’t like other cats. Or dogs. Or humans. She does however like birds, fish and squirrels. She thinks that all would be a welcome addition to her belly.


43 posted on 01/26/2009 6:38:15 AM PST by Cailleach
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To: Graybeard58

I want to provide a service where I take cats of deceased people. I will provide special service like the owner wants. How do I get started? I will keep the cat(s) until I find a new owner per the instructions from the deceased owner.


44 posted on 01/26/2009 6:38:33 AM PST by devane617 (Republican's first strategy should be taking over the MSM. Without it we are doomed.)
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To: MetsJetsandNets
And you see humans following their pets around in the park, actually picking up the pet’s feces. That, my friends, is a sad commentary...when a human willingly cleans up the feces of a “pet.” I imagine you'd not be too happy if you stepped in all that uncollected poo. As for someone harming my pets, some sicko mutilated my small flock of ducks last Oct by cutting the bills off of all of them. Do I want to kill the sicko? No, but I would love to have him/her/them arrested and charged with animal cruelty.
45 posted on 01/26/2009 6:44:16 AM PST by kalee (01/20/13 The end of an error.)
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To: Cailleach

I will step up my prayers for you and your hubby’s continued good health. :)


46 posted on 01/26/2009 6:47:20 AM PST by kalee (01/20/13 The end of an error.)
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To: Graybeard58
Maybe I should give all future pets apparently human namesJust don't try that on your form 1040.Y'say the IRS takes a dim view of the practice?

Uh-oh.

47 posted on 01/26/2009 6:59:09 AM PST by Titan Magroyne ("Drill now drill hard drill often and give old Gaia a cigarette afterwards she deserves it." HerrBlu)
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To: Slings and Arrows

My cat will be happy that there’s no-one to keep her off the kitchen counters or stop her rolling the bathroom in TP.

The dogs will delight in being allowed to stalk her, so my undiscovered corpse will go uneaten for a little longer than on average.


48 posted on 01/26/2009 7:02:37 AM PST by Titan Magroyne ("Drill now drill hard drill often and give old Gaia a cigarette afterwards she deserves it." HerrBlu)
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To: cherry
paganism.......placing animals superior to mankind......

Then I'm part pagan --- the animals I have known are indeed superior to a goodly percentage of the people I have run across in my 85 years.

49 posted on 01/26/2009 9:17:34 AM PST by Turret Gunner A20
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To: MetsJetsandNets
It’s stories like this that confirm my suspicions that pet owners are emotional cripples unable to tolerate their own company. So they get a pet and promptly begin to anthropomorphize it, attributing to it human qualities that exist in no animal. And when people post things like “I’ll kill anyone that messes with one of pets,” it shows how deranged pet owners are. Is there anyting more pathetic that seeing an adult making “baby talk” to a dog or cat. It turns my stomach. And you see humans following their pets around in the park, actually picking up the pet’s feces. That, my friends, is a sad commentary...when a human willingly cleans up the feces of a “pet.” Also, pet owners are irresponsible. They care nothing for how much the barking of their dogs disturbs the neighbors. If I heard on the news tonight that some strange virus had killed every dog and cat on the planet, I would do to sleep with a smile on my face.

I truly feel sorry for you. You need help.

50 posted on 01/26/2009 9:24:55 AM PST by Turret Gunner A20
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To: Titan Magroyne

We all have different ways of coping with grief.


51 posted on 01/26/2009 9:44:34 AM PST by Slings and Arrows (This fiasco brought to you by the failed Obama administration.)
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To: Slings and Arrows

LOL!

True.


52 posted on 01/26/2009 12:59:17 PM PST by Titan Magroyne ("Drill now drill hard drill often and give old Gaia a cigarette afterwards she deserves it." HerrBlu)
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To: Fawn
You, ‘my friend’, are one miserable unhappy person.

On the contrary. I'm sure he's thrilled every time he goes back to his homies on DU and posts a link to the latest "proof" of "how hateful right-wingers are".

I suppose it is a bummer sometimes when he loses the URL to what he just planted on these forums and can't remember how to find it again.

53 posted on 01/27/2009 11:48:12 AM PST by steve-b (Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics.)
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To: Turret Gunner A20

AMEN!!


54 posted on 01/27/2009 12:08:14 PM PST by Fawn ("Trust me" -- Jack Bauer)
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To: Slings and Arrows

LOL....I know one will be sitting on top of me staring ..one will bt hitting my face with her paw and the other will be flinging herself against me...


55 posted on 01/27/2009 12:10:48 PM PST by Fawn ("Trust me" -- Jack Bauer)
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