Search Results for: blog grieving for a lost pet

Sympathy Cards for a Lost Pet

It feels like I’ve been signing a lot of sympathy cards at the cats-only boarding facility lately. As much as I hate to think about it, our pets just don’t live as long as we’d like them to. It’s a sad coincidence that we’ve had several guests pass away in relatively quick succession. Sometimes, I don’t know what to say. I do my best to find something to love about each and every cat that comes through our doors. When I’m writing out the card, I try to remember some special moment I shared with the pet — some fond … Continue reading →

From the Mouths of Babes: Why Pets Have Such Short Lives

I’m a big fan of the James Herriot books and stories. You may be most familiar with All Creatures Great and Small — the book, the film, or the series. Herriot referred to them as his “little cat and dog stories”, but they are much more than that. They are glimpses into lives — Herriot’s own, and the lives of his clients and their owners. My favorite story has to be the one about why pets have such short lives. It goes a little something like this: a family needed to have their dog put to sleep. The dog, at … Continue reading →

Pet Bereavement Photography

The other day my friend Karen and I had a chance to catch up. I asked her about recent jobs she and Michael have done (they’re pet photographers) and she shocked me by telling me they’d gone with another friend who was having her dog put to sleep to photograph that. Now, they were very close friends with this person and I can understand going for support, but to catch the moment on film? That really shook me up. I admitted as much. “I know it sounds a little weird, but Donna got the idea because they’ve done some infant … Continue reading →

When Pets Pass: A Study in Grief

The topic of pets passing seems to be on many people’s minds lately. My brother-in-law recently informed me they lost their beloved 14-year-old Dalmatian, Alex. Over in the Families.com Pets Forum one of the members posted some sad news about her dog, Jax, who she recently discovered had Stage 2 cancer. Then Aimee posted a blog about her house rule (no pets are allowed to die) after a scare a friend had with her pet. When Budly, our cocker spaniel, died in 2000 it was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. He was my everything: my best … Continue reading →

Books on the Death of a Pet

I will never forget the day my son’s parakeet died in his hands. My son was eight and while I thought that I had prepared him for such a situation, watching the tears flow down his face made me realize I had not done a very good job. Sadly, pets die and children do not often understand what it all means. In fact, many times kids will associate the death of a pet with that of a parent. Therefore, I wanted to provide some excellent resources specifically for children age three to twelve on dealing with the death of a … Continue reading →

Grieving For A Lost Pet

People grieve differently. Pets do too! Other pets in the family may respond differently to the loss of a companion. A surviving pet may: Pace the house or search for their missing friend Refuse to eat or drink Act listless and depressed Whimper or howl Change personality — an aloof pet may suddenly clamor for attention and affection or vice versa Regardless of how your pet expresses their grief, you need to try to give them more attention and affection. Make a fuss over your pet when you get home from work; you may want to leave a television or … Continue reading →

Diary of a Cat Care B&B: the Worst Part of the Job

It feels like this year has been a rough one for some of our favorite clients at the cats-only boarding facility. Some of our long-time visitors succumbed to chronic health issues or old age. It feels like we’ve been sending a lot of condolence cards. I don’t like it. Not one bit. We said goodbye to another dear friend this week — you may remember him as the biggest cat I’d ever seen. When he first came in to board for a weekend, he tipped the scale at almost thirty-four pounds. On his latest visit, he was down to almost … Continue reading →

Summer Vacation from Hell

The next time you feel like complaining about how your summer vacation was marred by delayed flights, flat tires, crabby kids, and horrible hotels, consider the hell a Nevada mom endured while taking a camping trip with her 11-year-old son last week. What started off as an innocent overnight trip with her son and their dog to Death Valley National Park, quickly turned into the worst summer vacation in Alicia Sanchez’s life. The 28-year-old mom was just released from a Las Vegas hospital where she was being treated for severe dehydration. Now Sanchez must return home to bury her young … Continue reading →

Anger and Sexual Abuse (4)

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In Anger and Sexual Abuse (3), we looked at how 35-year-old Jenna had been sexually abused by her stepfather as a child and was now taking out her rage at this injustice on the world at large. She had just lost her job as a lawyer and had come for counseling. Jenna had never told her mother of the abuse as she was too frightened to do so as a child and now as an adult, she didn’t see the point in raking up old wounds. Yet Jenna was in enormous pain. She couldn’t maintain long-term relationships due to her … Continue reading →

The Awesome One

Had an interesting conversation with a client at the cats only boarding facility this morning. The woman’s two cats had been pretty much model citizens — they ate well, loved attention, and kept everyone entertained with playroom antics. So we told her how much we loved having her cats come stay with us. She beamed, then told us a story about her last veterinarian visit with the cats. The vet had been talking about cat people. (But I think this applies to all pet owners, really.) How people will have many different cats over the course of a lifetime. One … Continue reading →