chennai fourteen years ago periyasamy devaraj woke up from a coma that lasted 10 days all through the time that he was unconscious his family sat by his bedside praying for his recovery and one of the first gifts he received in his second life was a tenday old pomeranian who he named buji today devaraj 67 spends every waking moment by bujis bedside as his dog copes with kidney failure for the past five days i have been bringing him to the outpatient ward of blue cross veterinary hospital for treatment says devaraj who lives in pallikarnai with his family i come here everyday at 2pm i will give him the treatment till he breathes his last adds devaraj before he brought him to the blue cross hospital devaraj had taken buji to several veterinarians in the city hoping one of them would tell him that buji would be cured buji has been with me always he is a family member i am still hoping he will stay alive says devaraj like with devaraj veterinarians in the city say they often counsel owners who are grieving from the loss of a pet while some veterinarians suggest getting another pet soon after the loss of a pet there are others like dr priyadarshini govind who tells her petowners to first finish grieving before they move on a lot of owners come back to their vets after their pets die seeking comfort in their time of grief i let them grieve i tell them not to get another pet until they have come to terms with the death i also tell them to meet their friends who have pets that they are comfortable with says dr govind who also counsels owners through dealing with terminally ill pets sathya radhakrishnan honorary joint secretary blue cross says another way of dealing with pet loss is to volunteer at pet shelters we found that people who come to us when they are grieving find it comforting to work with animals and around people who understand what they are going through a number of our volunteers have dealt with the loss of a pet at some point in their lives says radhakrishnan blue cross also has a memorial wall put up where people leave tributes to their pets people also sponsor animal feeding to mark the death anniversaries of their pets says radhakrishnan