Time to get emotional. Sorry in advance. Everyone deals with grief in a different way. Maybe you have never dealt with grief. I have had deaths in the family when I was younger but I have never felt grief when I had to deal with the lost of my dog and my cousin. Yes, I was very sad when past family members passed away but these two deaths in my life were impactful and changed the way I look at life. Jeter, he was our first dog, we got him when I was 7. He was the prettiest dog, his fur was so soft, he had grinch paws, he shed so much and barked nonstop at the dinner table but he was amazing. He was 14 when he passed but it happened so fast. We could tell his back legs were hurting, he was limping but there were days where he would be perfectly fine, it was weird. We went away on vacation and on our last full day there we got a call from grandma who was watching the dogs. She said he wasn’t moving and was acting strange. We came home and the same day my parents took him to the Vet and he was not gonna make it and had to be put down. He couldn’t walk, he was in so much pain but now he is at ease and in peace. His death hit me hard because we grew up together, he was my ride or die. Yes, losing your dog is like losing a family member it hurts the same. My older cousin, Mike, passed away with brain cancer at the age of 31. Losing my cousin, watching him suffer, hurt me so bad inside. I didn’t know how to deal with the pain of watching someone slowly die. I didn’t understand why god would let this happen to him. I was mad, sad, depressed. I started to see life in a different way. I started to live for Mike, live everyday, be in the moment, be happy, and stopped rushing life. Grief is an awful thing to deal with. No one ever wants to go through it. My last thing, don’t rush life, don’t focus on the negative, be happy, spread love and kindness and remember you only have this one life, be good to it.