He walked into our lives on All Saints’ Day, 18 years ago next month: a tiny kitten with a collar but no ID.

He was no more than 10 weeks old and must have sneaked out of his house on Halloween.

On Friday, Finn slipped out of our lives as quietly as he arrived.

We are paying a high price now for the joy of that November 1, and for the unconditional love he gave us in return for board and lodgings over the subsequent 18 years.

Noel Doran: Jeffrey Donaldson’s carefully crafted Christian image was built entirely on lies

Don Mullan: It’s time to talk about King Billy’s links to the slave trade

I’m sharing our personal loss because I know that countless readers will have endured the pain of losing a pet, and it helps to talk about it.

The depth of grief losing a pet is something we rarely acknowledge. Indeed it is a grief often undervalued – they’re only animals after all.

But the sorrow we feel at the loss of another living thing who has been an integral part of our lives is no less than the loss of a relative or a friend. Pets are family

We don’t celebrate enough the way our pets enrich our lives. In a world that is increasingly fractious and........

© The Irish News