Dogs grieve too

When we think about grief, we think about ourselves. Our children. Friends. Parents. Grandparents. Aunts. Uncles. The humans who loved the one we lost. Before Bryce was taken from us, I knew that animals grieved the loss of those they loved as well. Whether it be their human family or other animal family members.

However, it has been eye-opening to see it firsthand. We adopted Brix with the intention of being Bryce’s dog. Rory was even the one who spotted him at the rescue. Bryce initially thought he looked like a rat or something. He wanted a bigger, more playful dog, and kenneled Brix looked so calm and sad. He was just lying there, curled up in a ball with big eyes. But as soon as we got him into the meet-and-greet room, Brix went straight to Bryce before anyone else. That kid was ALWAYS an animal whisperer. Animals and babies and kids all loved him. He just had that vibe.

He ended up choosing the name Brixton after the skate brand and we shortened it to Brix most often, though Rory, Carter, and I usually all call him Puppers. Eventually, it became a big joke about how Brix started to come to me most often for things like snuggles and sleeping and Bryce would laugh and call him a traitor.

But that pup still LOVED Bryce. Bryce came home…he’d go running to say hi. Bryce would wake up…he’d go running. He heard Bryce getting ready to leave…he’d go running. He’d still leave me to snuggle with Bryce for a while. He’d whine to be let in his room.

Right after the accident, the pillows I stole from Bryce’s bed to give me comfort smelt strongly of him. Brix would nuzzle his face in them too. He did the same in the clothes I wore in those first 2 weeks when they were stinky Bryce clothes. He was calmer. Not as happy.

He was sad.

It was obvious. He just didn’t know why Bryce wasn’t here like we did. He missed his friend but just couldn’t understand why Bryce left one evening and said “Bye, buddy” with plenty of scratches and then never come back again.

He doesn’t understand why I have slowly gone through his room, throwing some stuff away, packing other things into boxes for the move, and disassembling furniture.

I was in there this morning to patch the holes from where Bryce had his tv mounted and Brix was slowly walking around the room sniffing. After a couple of minutes, he started whining. All I could do was say “Me too, buddy” and give him scratches.

Dogs grieve too.