The death of a pet can be absolutely devastating. It's a loss made worse in some cases by a feeling that grief over an animal is nothing like grief for a person, and it shouldn't be. But for some, the death of a pet, IS the death of family member.
Counsellor and Psychotherapist Mary Maher wrote a thesis about this very subject, and found that in some cases the grief can be more complicated then it originally seemed.
She was talking to Maria in The Saturday Cafe