Finding Comfort after Losing Your Pet

Saying Goodbye to Your Angel Animals: Finding Comfort after Losing a Pet by Allen and Linda Anderson (New World Library, August 1, 2008) For everyone who loves an animal the day eventually arrives when it is necessary to say goodbye. Most people admit this is one of the hardest things they ever have to do. Now where can they turn to for unconditional love? How will they fill the hole in their hearts?

This comforting book is lovingly written by authors who have personally taken the journey through loss and with the thousands of people who write to share stories about their special pets.

The book is organized into two sections: Rainbows and Bridges. It expands upon the themes of the powerful Rainbow Bridge essay by helping readers remember the colors of their pets' rainbow and cross over bridges of grief to find healing and acceptance.

Saying Goodbye to Your Angel Animals contains three types of memorial services - cycles of life (nature), Judeo-Christian, and New Thought-based. The services can be used exactly as written or with sections interchanged. The Rainbow Bridge essay is included for use with the service and there are instructions on how to conduct them.

This comprehensive book also suggests rituals and tributes that can help to bring closure and healing. Its 25 meditations and exercises offer prompts for reflection.

Important topics in this book include:

Grieving when others don't understand the depth of your emotions

Organic grieving - at in your own pace, in your own time, in your own way

Handling a disconnect between longing to meet your pet in heaven and your religion or congregation's views on the subject

What NEVER to say to someone who has lost a beloved pet

Overcoming guilt and regrets after the pain of a euthanasia

Dreams and spiritual experiences with pets after death

Helping children through the death of a pet

Ways to comfort grieving animal family members

How to know when you're ready to adopt another pet.

Finding Comfort after Losing Your Pet

“Allen and Linda Anderson’s book gives us permission to acknowledge the intense bond we have with our animal companions and the deep loss we can experience after their deaths. It provides helpful stories, exercises, and memorial services respecting a variety of beliefs. Infused with kindness, their work offers us help, hope, and a rainbow during the storm. I have learned from it and will celebrate and share it.”
--The Reverend Mary Piper, Episcopal priest and chaplain, cofounder of the pet loss support program at Heart of the Valley Humane Society in Bozeman, Montana