The attachment we feel with our pets varies widely among individuals, depending on the function the animals have in our lives, the personal needs they fill in us and the strength of the emotional bonds we have with them. One of the BBNaija 2019 housemates, Omashola has been spotted expressing teary emotions after his pet died.
It’s incredibly painful to lose a beloved pet that you’ve built a close relationship with and it was evident in Omashola’s voice when he shared a video of the dead parrot on his Instagram page. He added a short caption, simply saying, “What a fucking nightmare” with crying emoticons as well. The oldest housemate in the show was crying because his pet parrot died! Wow! Such raw emotions.
His fans commiserated with him on the painful loss. Here are some comments culled from them:
“piremb: Obituary!! may his bird soul Rest In Peace”
“_iamhov: Oh shame. May his soul rip. When is the funeral baba?”
“thenabsta: I’m sorry Sholzy my bro. I know how much that bird meant to you. We ate lunch with that bird together, and it was eating jollof with us. A Naija bird has left us. May he rest easy. Sorry Sholzy.”
You’d be a poor pet owner if you weren’t emotionally involved with your pets. If the pet doesn’t evoke feelings of contentment, happiness, pride, compassion and enjoyment, then something is wrong somewhere! There is nothing unhealthy about being attached to our pets, unless the attachment is unreasonable, interferes with our ability to relate to others or gets in the way of our daily functioning. Wonderful as it is, love for a pet is not a suitable substitute for human companionship.
When the pet’s death comes, as it inevitably will, the overly attached person may be devastated, socially isolated and at risk for a complicated grief reaction. The pet’s death may signal the end of the most meaningful relationship in the person’s life. If the pet was seen as an extension of the self, the death can symbolically represent the individual’s own demise, as if an essential part of the person has died also.