Lost Companions
Reflections On The Death Of Pets
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A heartfelt exploration of human grief after the loss of a pet by the New York Times bestselling author of Dogs Never Lie About Love.
Our society is still learning how to dignify the relationship between a pet and their human with proper mourning rituals. We have only recently allowed the conversation of how to grieve for our non-human family members to come front and centre. In examining the special bond between pets and their people, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson validates the grief that we feel when a special pet dies. Lost Companions is full of poignant stories about dogs, cats, horses, birds, wombats and other animals that beautifully illustrate the strong bond humans form with them. A heartfelt exploration of human grief after the loss of a pet by the New York Times bestselling author of Dogs Never Lie About Love, Lost Companions is a thought-provoking book on pet loss. Masson takes a personal approach, allowing readers to explore their own responses, suggesting ways through and out of grief, as well as meaningful ways to memorialize our best friends.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Masson (The Secret World of Farm Animals) discusses people's close relationships with their pets through the lens of mortality in this moving and intimate study. Now 79, he reflects on a lifetime of pets, including his current one, yellow Labrador Benjy, who at 13 is already a year beyond the breed's average life expectancy, a realization Masson finds "unbearable." He also elicits stories from friends, which are moving and occasionally heartbreaking, dealing with cats and dogs, as well as less traditional pets, including turkeys and wombats. "Grief is grief," Masson writes, and though he's decidedly "not a great fan of psychology," he covers the stages of grief. Masson also tracks how humans' relationships with animals have changed over time (a "coevolution," he terms it) and suggests that dogs have "developed something unique in their ability to intuit our emotional states and to show empathy." Anyone who's found it difficult to deal with the fact that pets' "lives are so much shorter" than humans' will appreciate this compassionate work.
