(BPT) - As any pet lover will readily admit, the greatest attribute that pets have is unconditional love for their owners. Perhaps that is why it is so difficult when we must say goodbye to our pets.

Well-meaning friends and family may question the seriousness of grief that some experience following the loss of a pet. They may believe that while some level of grief is warranted, it should be a kind of reduced or secondary grief.

But J. David Bragg, who holds a doctorate in psychology and teaches at South University’s campus in Virginia Beach, Va., says that the human mind does not experience loss that way.