Articles on pet loss and grief
Writings on loss, memorials, and remembering the ones we love.
Losing a pet
On grief and honouring a pet's memory.
Digital memorials
Why an online place to remember matters.
The original Rainbow Bridge poem and its true author
Who wrote the original Rainbow Bridge poem? Edna Clyne-Rekhy, 1959, after her dog Major died — and how the poem lost her name for 64 years.
24 pet memorial ideas — simple, personal, lasting
24 ways to honour an animal you loved — in the garden, at home, in words, and keepsakes that do not fade.
Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day
How to honour your pet on 28 August — and where the day came from.
Losing a dog
When the day loses its shape: the routine, the walk, the empty lead.
Losing a cat
The quiet grief no one else can see — and the guilt of not noticing.
What to write on a pet memorial
Words that hold: the name, the years, the one line. With examples.
What to say when someone loses a pet
Sympathy messages that help — and the sentences to avoid.
Why grief hurts so much
Why the loss lands so hard — and why the “five stages” were never about you.
Continuing bonds
Why keeping a connection to the pet you lost is healthy, not something to let go.
Children and pet loss
How to tell a child a pet has died — and why gentle euphemisms do harm.
Farewell rituals
Ways to say goodbye — before, on the day, and after. A ritual gives loss a shape.
A new pet after loss
When is it right to get another animal? A new pet is not a replacement.
Is this grief normal?
Why people wonder if they may grieve at all — and grief the world does not acknowledge.
Pet loss and guilt
The “did I do enough?” that moves in after a pet dies — and how hindsight distorts it.