Coping with the loss of your beloved pet: Animals & Grief

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Pain in pets often goes unnoticed until it becomes severe because animals instinctively hide discomfort as a survival mechanism. This makes it extremely difficult for us to know when they are in pain. Being attentive to these subtle changes in behavior and movement patterns is crucial for early intervention, which can significantly improve treatment outcomes and quality of life. In this lecture, I've added a new PDF guide to help you recognise pain in your dog or cat. There are two pages of signs that apply to both cats and dogs. Also, there are more in-depth descriptions on pages that are specific to cats and dogs, addressing each individually. Finally, there are suggested techniques to monitor your pet's pain symptoms so you can be more in tune with your pet's needs and communicate more effectively with your vet.

Here is how to create a pain monitoring system and when to contact the vet.

Nerica, Tigruta, and Jen in old age and the illnesses they overcame to live for another year or two or three! I share stories of their illnesses and recovery even though the illnesses seemed grave and life-threatening at the time. Don't act prematurely when it comes to euthanasia.

This is an incredibly difficult decision, it might even be the hardest in your life. Having fear about being present with your pet as they leave this world is completely valid. If you are facing this situation and you are reluctant to stay with them during the euthanasia process please take a moment here. You have a few different options. (This section was added in April 2025)

This is the story of Bono's transition, including some signs that your dog may be getting ready to move on. Bono lived for approximately 15.5 years and died of complications of old age.

This is the story of Nerica and her last days. In the video presentation, I go into detail about them. Although I speak about the fact that she had collapsed several times, I failed to mention a few things about the last days of her life. On the very last day of her life, she could no longer lift her body off of the floor at all.  Also, 7-10 days before she died, she did go to the vet hospital for X-rays, and the bones in her jaw had disintegrated, and it was just lucky that it didn't completely break. This wasn't a visible injury, and she did not wince or whimper although I knew she had dental problems, the amount of damage to her bones was surprising. She was very stoic in some ways. Perhaps that is something that she developed living on the streets in the early years of her life. Her life was very challenging until she came to live with me and The doctors said there was nothing we could do to remedy that situation.

In this video, I share Kiki's last couple of weeks and days and how I knew it was time to let her go.

In this part of the course, we discuss grief and loss and their impact on our lives. I have updated this section (April 2025) with a grief glossary resource that you can download.

In this lecture, we acknowldege that some people aren't able to comprehend the loss and grief you feel. And a brief story of MacDuff the cat's death.

We look at the various symptoms of grief you might experience.

We address the fact that people may grieve differently.

You'll learn a variety of ways you can help your pet through it's grief and understand some of the ways they grieve. You can heal together. This lecture is in 'article' form. You can also download a modified version of it as a PDF. (updated April 2025)

We now face choices about honouring our beloved companions in death that previous generations never encountered. "Should I create an online memorial?," or "Is a physical tribute more meaningful?" These are some of the questions we are faced with when our beloved companion dies. In this article we explore the pros and cons of traditional and digital memorials and how to integrate both in a meaningful way that works for you.

Journaling is a powerful tool for healing your heart and remembering your best friend too. This includes a PDF download that you can print with lined or dotted journal pages (you choose) and includes prompts to help you let it all out and heal your heart. See the previous lecture for the Children's pages PDF.

This lecture includes Children's Pages (PDF download) and for adults Self-Care Healing actions page (PDF)