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Bonding through joy and grief

Mette Østman

In The Little Prince (1943) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the prince meets a fox. It tells him, that friendships happen when you bond. It's at that point that you come to mean something to each other. ”Then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world,” the fox says to the prince.


We bond with our pets, and they bond with us. And this bond is not restricted to the happiness experienced when they're alive.


En hund i en kurv med en filtet dyreurne

Sharing their joy

Our pets can't help but share their joy openly, which is so infectious. Who hasn't seen a dog excitedly chasing a ball, or a cat loving its cardboard box? Animals live in the now, and they don't hold a grudge (although, some cat owners will insist that this is not entirely true). They forgive without second thought. One might say they lead a carefree life, from which we humans could draw inspiration.


When having a pet, we share their joy and unconditional love, no matter what mood we're in ourselves. Our pets can make us get off the couch and go for a walk in all kinds of bad weather, which further illustrates just how much they mean to us.


Responsible for life and death

Unfortunately, saying goodbye is also a part of our friendship. When we get a pet, we know from the beginning it won't live as long as we do. It seems so far away when you bring home a new kitten or puppy, but it's nevertheless something we need to acknowledge.


When the prince in The Little Prince bonds with the fox, he grows fond of it and therefore he takes care of it. We are obligated to take care of our pets; they should feel well, and not suffer any pains or discomfort. If you're keeping an old and suffering pet alive, you have to ask yourself, for whom are you keeping it alive? Is it because you yourself are afraid of saying goodbye? We're responsible for the pet for its entire lifetime, and that includes its death.


Illustration fra den lille prins der viser den lille prins og ræven
Den lille prins af Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Bonding after life

The fox in The Little Prince says that time spent building friendships you know won't last forever isn't misspent. “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important,” it says. And the same sentiment applies to our pets when they're no longer here.


When we lose our pets, we go through the same process of grief as when we lose a person to whom we're close. We hope that our pet urns can help open up the difficult conversation about death, which is an undeniable part of sharing one's life with a furry friend.

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