A few years ago, when my sweet tortie, Neala, passed away, I was distraught. We managed her liver disease for several years, but it was cancer that actually got her in the end. She was my first adult experience of losing an animal that I had raised from the time she was 8 weeks old. She was everything to me. I didn't know how to deal with the grief.
She died at 9 years of age, which I always said was like a "half-life". It wasn't enough. Why did she die so young?
As I read and researched and tried to find answers from others. I realized that many or "most" people in the intuitive world, who have worked with animals and talked to them about their transitions, have determined that their animal's passing was something that was "meant" to happen, part of our soul contract and that there is usually a lesson for the human. While this realization didn't take away all of my pain, it did help me to begin seeing circumstances differently. It has continued to be a blessing for me to be conscious of this when I see an animal on the side of the road or hear a story of neglect that would otherwise be debilitating for my hyper-empathetic self.
I believe that one of the main reasons I have been brought to do intuitive work is to help others who are on their own journeys with grief and to help them start to heal. If I can make just one person feel a bit better, it's all worth it.
I had to say goodbye to this little one just a few months ago. She was only 6. Some days are better than others...but I understand.