Grief following pet loss often is treated as less valid, less serious or less worthy of support than human loss. And people often say the wrong thing.
I saw it firsthand after my cat Murphy died earlier this year. She'd been diagnosed with cancer just weeks before.
She was a small, gray tabby with delicate paws who, even during chemotherapy, climbed her favorite dresser perch -- Mount Murphy -- with steady determination.
The day after she died, a colleague said with a shrug: "It's just part of life."
That phrase stayed with me -- not because it was wrong, but because of how quickly it dismissed something real.
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