Our 14-year-old dog Abbey died last month. The day after she passed away my 4-year-old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we […]

Thanks for passing on this story, Ken: Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle. I examined Belker and found he was dying […]

The death of a hospice patient is not an emergency. Nothing must be done immediately. After the death it is okay to sit with your loved one for a while. There is no rush to get anything done right away. Many families find this is an important time to pray or talk together and reconfirm […]

  Last Tuesday I mentioned the family cat, Pumpkin, was missing and I’m grateful to everyone who wrote to me since then with thoughts and well wishes and questions of whether or not we’ve found her. Thanks for all your concern. Last week my children put up posters (having Pumpkin’s photo and explaining about her […]

Our orange and black spayed cat, Pumpkin, never came home yesterday. She went outside when my hubby headed off to work in the morning before the sun came up…and I haven’t seen her since. And of course I fear the worst…this morning before dawn I went outside to call her (as I have called her […]

Last year when my family was looking for a home for one of our two six-month-old kittens, lots of people showed interest in adoption. We decided to go with a single parent family having three children whose beloved cat had died. Within that family was a little girl named Angela. She and her family had […]

Do pets grieve? Well if we base our opinion on their behavior, yes, they can grieve. If you recently experienced the death of a pet like I have, and have a surviving companion pet that has: Stopped eating or is eating less, Become aloof, Become lethargic, Become clingy and more affectionate, Lost interest in her/his […]

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play  together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, […]

“Did you see Oreo’s belly? When she came up the stairs her belly looked big. Have a look,” my husband implored. (That request was shared a little more than two weeks ago, on a Tuesday. And today, astonishingly, that one-year-old, black-and-white, short haired angel of a cat named Oreo is gone from this world. It […]

She simply sat there; her eyes semi-closed and her pupils hugely dilated even in broad daylight making them appear as large black glassy pools, looking up at me, like I had the answers. Her face was gaunt like the rest of her bony body (except for her large and uncomfortable looking belly). I walked over […]