While I had many friends as a child, arguably my best friend was my dog Jackie. He was bought when I was 2 1/2 and I named him. Everyone else called him Jack; I called him Jackie. He was energetic, fearless, and highly intelligent. He was an explorer and that was to his determinant. He was killed by a car in April or May 1997 and I can still remember the day I was told. I thought it was some sick joke on my parents' part. No matter how hard I have tried I have never felt as close to an animal since; and honestly I would take Jackie over most people. He was like a crib mate in the sense that we were both babies together.

Another one that gets me is a bird we had briefly named Peaches (who I also named). Peaches was bought in the summer of 1996 a few months after my dad's bird Louie (who was 16 at the time) died. She was a rebound buy. Louie's death was highly distressing to my father and he in fact took a few days off of work after she died (yes, Louie was a she. No one knew that until she began laying eggs). I do not remember her at all because we only had her for perhaps a month before she died of the same virus which kille Louie, yet somehow when I think of her I get sad.

I had 2 gerbils back in 1988, it didn't really bother me, we had to bury our gerbil in our backyard, we had to do it.

Well, anytime a beloved pet dies, it always saddens me...and I am NEVER totally over it. :\'(

ALL of them.


Cat

When I was 16 or 17 I use to have a cat named Mauro. One day he became very sick so we did what anyone would have done we took him to the vet. It turned out he had feline leukemia. There was no way for him to be cured so I pretty much had to watch him die slowly. It was sad, awful, and traumatic. I cried every single day until the day he died. After he died I would have dreams about him. Then eventually they stopped. He was my favorite and I never forgot him.

Around 10/11 years ago, me, my sister, and two of my brothers each had a hamster. They were very happy and very friendly to us and each other. My brother's hamster was pregnant, and when she gave birth she ate all her babies. I guess she really liked the taste cause one day I came back from kindergarten to find her chewing my hamster after she killed him which is something NO 5 year old needs to see 8-P. She eventually got my sister's and my other brother's hamsters too ;D ;D.

When I was 17, losing my cat

My dog Snipper I got for Christmas in kindergarten. He lived from before I started kindergarten till after I graduated college. He lived 15 years 8 months and died of kidney failure.  He lived a good life but still....

And this time I saved this baby cedar waxwing from a roll of fence out back. I put him a shoebox. Dug some worms for him. Made him a bed out of a piece of fabric and some stuffing I pulled out of a hole in the couch. Gave him a light for heat. Then later was watching tv and heard a tweet and he had given a last burst of energy and jumped and died. I cried so hard. And the next day when I buried him. To this day a cedar waxwing is my favorite bird.

I had a pet gerbil in 1988 and when it passed away I believe we buried it in our backyard in a small box but life is life and after that it didn't bother me.