The God Squad: The spiritual necessity of pets
Hi, Rabbi Gellman, I just found your old article on losing a pet. All of your articles "speak" to me, but this one touched me deeply. We have lost Franklin, Eleanor, Miss Kitty, Spenser and my love, Teddy. We laugh, we cry remembering our fur babies. Your article was so heartwarming. On this New Year's Eve, I thank you and wish you peace, kindness and many blessings. – (From M in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn)
A: Thank you, dear M, for your kind words about one of my favorite articles (an updated version is included below).
My love for animals began when I began. My grandfather, Leo Gellman, was a zookeeper at the Milwaukee Zoo and my childhood memories included walking onto monkey island with my coat stuffed with grandma Sara’s mandel bread. I was instantly covered by a “monkey coat” reaching into my pockets to extract the goodies. Later in life we raised guide dogs.
As the year turns I want to ask you to share your stories about what pets have done for you. I am not asking how you felt about losing them to the angel of death. I am asking what they did for your soul when they lived with you.
The Death of Miles
A letter to Dr. Alan Coren, owner and veterinarian at West Hills Animal Hospital, Huntington, Long Island.
Dear Alan,
I wanted to write to thank you properly and personally for your compassion and care for Miles through his life and up to his last moments when Miles died on the blanket you had spread out for us in exam room two. Miles' debilitating renal failure was a death sentence, and thankfully his suffering is now over.
As Miles turned cold in my arms and entered a breathless eternal sleep, I was utterly unprepared for the flood of tears and grief I felt at his death. I still find myself instinctively moving my feet under my desk expecting to slip them under Miles' head.
I bury people, and I know that grief at the death of a pet is not the same as the grief at the death of a person, but it is still grief. It is still deep and raw and real and shattering to our admittedly irrational expectations that we will never be separated from those we love.
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