My friend had a dog she loved dearly and who she thought on to be kind of a daughter for her. One day she was bit by a tick and infected with Lyme’s disease; to her grief the physicians were not able to realize of the disease until it was excessively late and there was nothing left to do but to euthanize her. I remember she cried softly, though her face expressed the deepest parts of her grief.
She sought comfort in her family and bumped into the selfishness of her father who blamed her, the vets and everyone else on the death of her dog. He threw a fit and drove away without looking back. She took the body of her beloved friend and took her home where she spent all night hugging the corpse and caressing her hair.
After the proper rituals she found that her father had bailed on the entire family because he said, ‘he felt betrayed by everyone, since it was her and her mother and her sister that had mainly caused the dog’s demise’. All through the months that followed the death and until he finally left she never heard her father say: “I am sorry for you”