Am I always going to feel like this

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Note: I didn't know where to put this

Last year, on July 4th,2011 my cat died. He was a beautiful cat I knew him since I was a young child. He was old and it was horrible to watch him get older and older and wither away. I miss him a great deal. The house doesn't feel the same without him. But I suppose what I want to ask is, am I always going to be like this? Every time I see a photo of him, I started to tear up a little and sometimes I actually cry. How long before I stop crying at the photos?

My childhood cat died when I was a sophomore in high school (15), it was about 6 years until I started to not tear up at pictures of her, or pictures that reminded me of her. Last December the cat I got after my childhood cat died when he escaped the house and was hit by a car (I still beat myself up over the fact that he escaped from the house). Now, every time I see a grey stripe cat, I cry a bit. Playing with my new cat helps (I needed a new cuddle buddy), although I sometimes feel guilty about getting a new cat only 2 days after my last one died, but I was not handling his death well.
I am sorry for your loss, and I know how attached a person can get to an animal, especially as they always listen, never judge, and love you no matter what, and are not as stressful as people.

What I think is unfair is that people don't seem to think that losing a pet is the same way as losing a family member such as a grandfather. But to me my cat was not a pet he was a family member. And so it makes it hard for me to be able to talk to someone about it because they sort of shrug it off as, "it's not as bad as losing my grandfather" they don't specifically state that, just the way it is implied.

It gets easier, eventually. But it takes time.

I lost a favorite cat back in 2004. Her name was deanna. She was more like a fuzzy little daughter than a "pet". We we're very close, she was a very timid cat and only trusted me.
It hurt like hell when she suddenly died of a blood clot. I was absolutely miserable for over a year after that.

But slowly over time I accepted her passing and her absence got easier to deal with.
I still get a little sad inside though when I think of her.

A hard truth we have to accept when we take animals into our lives is that they do not live anywhere near as long as we do and we will eventually have to part with them. That's just how things are.

I like to think that her spirit is still with me though. Every so often, I could swear I see her out of the corner of my eye.

I understand your loss, it's a tough pain to recover from.
Hang in there

I understand. At 63, I have had a lot of cats and lost a lot too. But one in particular, four months ago has me torn up. His actions and personality just sort of felt like my pet soul mate and he was taken from me too soon. I still see him in my mind and miss him terribly.

It sounds like your cat was old and although it does not diminish a loss or the mourning that is felt, it can also be a reminder to learn that aging and death is part of the life cycle, that quality of life is better than quantity and that you have love enough to give.

The animal might not be a person, but my cats are my constant companions and confidants. In some ways they mean more to me than some people (emotionally).

To be frank, I am not very close to my living grandparents, and we do not get along, yes I would mourn if they died, but it would not impact me as much as when Prudy died. I think it is very important to have someone to talk to about the things you liked and missed (or disliked and feel guilty about not missing) in your cat. I find it hard, and feel guilty when I compare my dead Prudence with my new adopted kitten Peanut Butter, as they are not very similar. This is especially true as I picked out Peanut Butter to specifically have traits that Prudence did not have (getting along with other animals and people). I then get frustrated or angry when someone compares Prudence unfavorably to Peanut Butter, or when people say that Peanut Butter is a better cat.

While I haven't lost many cats - only one when I was really young and couldn't really understand - I have lost other pets. I knew that everything would eventually died, but with my first hamster, I guess I just really wasn't expecting it. Suppose I kept thinking, in the back of my head, that it wouldn't happen on whatever day it happened to be at the time. After that, there were others, and maybe I didn't get quite over the first because I kept naming each subsequent one Timmy Jr. or Timmy the third, etc. Eventually I got to feeling more guilty than sad, since I feel I tended to neglect them more and more in fear of getting too attached. I really should not have had any pets then and I still feel bad about that.

My family does own five cats now. Sad to think that they'll die, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Actually, more than a few months back we had a scare with the oldest one. He decided he didn't want to eat anymore, around the same time my brother and his girlfriend brought in a new cat(thank god they've moved out - not all cats are created equal), and we were worried about him. Things are fine and have gotten better now, at least.

The way some people treat animals in general makes me sick. Because they aren't as "smart" or sophisticated as humans or have not built the same kind of society for themselves somehow makes them less than us. They treat them more like possessions, really(probably the same people who think of their children as little more than servants). Thinking about this, I'm reminded of the Houyhnhnms(and Yahoos, as well) from Gulliver's Travels.

I have three cats, the first and only p ets Ive owned since moving out of my parents in 2005. Boy, am I in a lot of trouble. I grew up with five dogs (not all at the same time), a rabbit and a guinea pig....and when they died I just threw myself on my bed and sobbed.....my mom said I called it "my grieving bed".......lol......that was in fourth grade.....My animals never judge me, they are always there for me and don't care how much money I have, whether I smoke, what my political beliefs are, or how I look naked. Lol. I understand what your going thru and one thing that helped me was thinking about my pets that died getting to play with all the other pets in Heaven while they waited for me.......it doesn't matter if you believe in heaven or not, Im agnostic...I would knock my cat out of the way of a car if I had to.....Im more likely to survive than he is anyway lol. I hope you feel better. It gets better.