Compassionate leave for a pet?! Fuck me that's a joke. I've stood in a classroom and gulped back tears before now having had to have a cat put down at 8am and gone in. I get paid to do my job, not sob over a pet
This thread reminds me of the Yorkshiremen sketch. I see your dead cat and I raise you: my entire family died in a tsunami but 3 seconds later I was performing rocket science because my country needed me.
And then it oscillates to: 3 days off for a horse? I cried for a month over a gerbil and spend 12 months in mourning weeds each time a member of my ant colony passes away.
For the record, when anyone, human or animal has passed away, I've only ever taken unpaid leave or annual leave. If I worked somewhere that offered compassionate leave I might take it, if my request was within the remit of the company's policy. However, I have taken the leave I've needed because I have found after long experience that illness, injury and grief take longer to recover from if you don't take the time you need, if you need it, right at the start. Far better to spend a day in bed, or whatever, than 3 weeks performing below par and snapping at everyone because you aren't healed.
A few weeks into my Masters course my dog died. She was a few days short of her 9th birthday. I won't describe how it felt < waves at researchers >. I took 5 days off, 2 of which were over the weekend. Fortunately the university realised that I wasn't taking the mickey, but that I couldn't function. I went on to get a distinction, including some of the highest grades ever attained on that course.
Work pay me to work. They have not bought my soul. I will take time off when I need it but I'll still manage to do the job I'm paid for, and do it well.