In their own unique way, pets form their own relationship with each other. What happens when one pet passes away? Considering pets and grief, do animals have their own way of grieving the loss of each other? Working with pets and families as we do, we certainly see and witnessed many instances where they obviously (and in their own way) show how they search for the fellow pet that is no longer there to play – and while we’ve seen it, it’s really hard to convey what that looks like unless you see the pet.
A Game Developer Explores the Grief of Pets
But then we encountered this story – and it’s pretty incredible. David is a video game developer in the area, and he’s quite accomplished (check out his web site at solanimus.com and you’ll see what I mean). He relayed to us the story behind the first game he ever developed, and it’s incredible:
When I was much younger, we adopted two cats that had been together their entire lives, Cool-B and Floyd. Unfortunately, Floyd got very sick… he passed away. After this, Cool-B of course changed dramatically. He would roam the house, crying for Floyd, searching for him every night.
Seeing this (along with his own grief over losing Floyd), David developed a video game that told the story of Cool-B on a journey looking for his buddy Floyd. Cool-B in Search of Floyd was the first game he developed, and helped launch his career and his company – but even more, it allowed David to tell the story of loss that his pet was experiencing.
As this was his first game (as well as several years old by now), David himself will tell you that the graphics, music, and gameplay of his first game were indicative of a young developer (his current games are pretty amazing) – but check it out. Spoiler alert – if you get to the end of the game (where Floyd finds Cool-B at the foot of the Rainbow Bridge), you get to see pictures of the actual Floyd and Cool-B.
