Grieving A Pet: Creative Ways To Mourn Your Loss

Mourning and grieving a pet is one of the most difficult and painful times for many people. Pets offer an unconditional, loving acceptance that most people don't get from humans. For many people, their pet companions are their best friends and confidants and losing their animal friend is the same as losing a family member.

Some of the things people might experience when grieving a pet are:
- feeling like they've lost a part of themselves
- intense loneliness
- trouble sleeping
- no appetite
- isolation
- anger
- guilt

One thing that many people who are grieving a pet encounter is the callous reaction of some people. Some common things that people say to those in mourning for pets include;"It's just an animal", "aren't you over that yet", "just get another one". These types of comments can make people feel that there is something wrong with them for grieving a pet. It also gives the message that one pet is replaceable with another. These are simply not true.

Grieving a pet is perfectly natural and is a sign of compassion and love for other creatures that share this planet with us. But there are many people who understand what grieving a pet means and how painful it is. There are many online support groups, pet memorial sites, and animal support groups that one can join to find other people who understand and are going through the same thing.


There are also lots of creative projects that people can do to honor and mourn their beloved pet. Here are a few very creative and honoring ways to help you mourn the loss of your pet.

1. Pet Memorial Scrapbook: Gather photos of your pet, you and other family members. write on paper strips what you want to say to them; the good times you remember, thank them for what they gave you, tell them anything you want them to know. Use the images to help you come up with what you want to say. Paste the written slips on the appropriate photos. Make a nice cover with their photo, name and date of birth/death on it. Put it away somewhere safe where you can look through it when you miss them. It is creating a memorial or them and is a nice way to "spend time with them" when you're really missing them.

2. Journaling with Quotes: Print or copy 5 photos of your pet (can be different images or the same one). Cut out and paste on 5 different pieces of 8.5 x 11 blank paper. Print and cutout the quotes below, or other quotes you have found. Find other images from magazines that represent things your pet liked or liked to do. Examples: dog bones, cat toy, a dog running, etc. Paste them on the different pages as your feelings dictate. Use markers, crayons, and/or colored pencils to color in words or doodles. Be free with your creativity, use this time to think about your pet and how much joy they brought you. Don't worry about how it looks, the doing is the important part. When you're done, tuck them away somewhere safe.

3. ROAR: Pet Loss Grief Recovery. An ebook filled with exercises and self-help activities that will help you work through your pain. Every chapter has Journaling Questions that will validate the sorrow that you’re feeling, as the author leads you to create your own unique story of you and your beloved pet. Click here to learn more about Roar and get creative projects to help you grieve your beloved pet.

Quotes on Grieving A Pet To Use in Art:

"I can still see my first dog. For six years he met me at the same place after school and convoyed me home — a service he thought up himself. A boy doesn't forget that sort of association." - E.B. White

"I am four cats old, measuring out my life in friends that have succeeded, but not replaced, one another." - Irving Townsend

"No heaven will not ever Heaven be. Unless my cats are there to welcome me." - Anonymous

"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." - Roger Caras

If I have any beliefs about immortality it is that certain dogs I know will go to heaven, and very, very few people." - James Thurber

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went." - Will Rogers

"If there is a heaven, it's certain our animals are to be there. Their lives become so interwoven with our own, it would take more than an archangel to detangle them." - Pam Brown

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." - Anatole France

"Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in. " - Mark Twain

"If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans."- James Herriot

"If you have a dog, you will most likely outlive it; to get a dog is to open yourself to profound joy and, prospectively, to equally profound sadness." - Marjorie Garber

"I came across a photograph of him not long ago... his black face, the long snout sniffing at something in the air, his tail straight and pointing, his eyes flashing in some momentary excitement. Looking at a faded photograph taken more than forty years before, even as a grown man, I would admit I still missed him." - Willie Morris

"I feel about my dogs now, and all the dogs I had prior to this, the way I feel about children — they are that important to me. When I have lost a dog I have gone into a mourning period that lasted for months." - Mary Tyler Moore

All good animals go to Heaven. And all animals are good. - Unknown