This post is in memory of Saffy, Dolly,
and Pixie – my furry little lifesavers.
“Death ends a life, not a
relationship.”
Mitch Albom
Whether you
know me personally or only through my social media or the content of my blog,
I’d like to think you know that I’m the type of person who is forever looking
on the bright side of difficult situations. And I think this is because I’ve
experienced how it feels to allow myself to only see the difficulty of
everything. To concentrate on the hardship and fail to find hope. And I now
know what damage that can cause me to do to myself. I know it can leave me
feeling as though I’d rather be dead than continue to experience it. And so,
I’d like to take this Day as an opportunity – not to concentrate on the
devastating impact of the loss of three very important pets since creating I’m
NOT Disordered – but instead, to talk about the lessons I’ve learnt from the
loss of Saffy, Dolly, and Pixie; in the hope that it will benefit others going
through a similar hardship…
DON’T BE
ASHAMED TO TALK ABOUT YOUR SADNESS
This lesson
came particularly when my lop-eared, Lionhead bunny Pixie was put to sleep in
April this year (you can read more about her death here). Prior to losing Pixie, both of the most notable pets
passing (Saffy and Dolly) were cats and for some reason, I think that even
people without pets can be more empathetic to someone who’s lost their cat than
they would for the death of a rabbit. I think that with rabbits mostly being
classed as a ‘small animal’ a lot of people (especially those who haven’t owned
a rabbit) see them as less significant.
When I bought
Pixie in September 2017 ( you can read more about adding her to the family here), the visual hallucinations of rabbits had just come back
and spotting her in my local Pets at Home, I had the impulsive idea that maybe
holding her would help me. I knew that I couldn’t touch my rabbit
hallucinations because every time I got closer, they moved away. So, I thought
that in holding and stroking a real rabbit, maybe I’d feel more grounded. And I
was right; the next day I returned, bought Pixie and took her home where she
continued to help me. She continued to bring me back to earth when all my mind
seemed to want to fly away and ignore all of the very really challenging
moments and situations.
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