Bereavement: Adult

Loss of a Pet (November 2005)
By Wallace Sife, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based psychotherapist and the founder of the Association for Pet Bereavement. Understanding helps heal the hurt when you lose a pet. A cherished pet gives you boundless, unconditional love and occupies a special place in your routine, your home, and your heart. When your pet dies, that warm, special place becomes a sad, empty space. The Loss of a Pet, Third Edition has new expanded information, and is filled with practical suggestions, resources, and most importantly, compassion and understanding. This important book helps you cope and reassures you that you are not alone. This book helps you understand:

* The grieving process, including typical stages of grief and techniques for coping
* Grieving for a missing pet, one you had to give up because of a change in life situation, and other difficult circumstances
* Children and the death of a pet
* Euthanasia, including important considerations
* Religion and the death of a pet, with articles by various religious leaders
* Aftercare facilities, including an extensive index of pet cemeteries, crematories, and memorial gardens

Mostly Bob (2006)
When Tom Corwin’s golden retriever, Bob, passed away unexpectedly, Tom decided to write a letter as a tribute to Bob’s life. The letter would also tell Bob’s many human friends what they might not have known — the surprising story of how Bob was once a ferocious, abused, untrusting dog named Red and how he changed completely to become Tom’s best friend.

Coping with Sorrow and the Loss of Your Pet (2004)
By Moira Anderson. Pet loss hurts! But now there's a caring, practical resource to help you heal. Learn how to work through your grief, how to help the rest of your family cope, and how to move on to new, loving relationships with new pets when the time is right. Answers such questions as: Why do I hurt so much? Will these feelings ever get better? What can I do to ease the pain? What should I tell my children? Should I get another pet right away? When is the right time to euthanize a pet? Where should I bury my pet? My pet ran away; how can I find it? Where can I get more help?

Journey Through Pet Loss (2000)
Three hour audio by Deborah Antinori. Helpful information and personal experiences regarding pet loss. Topics range from support for feelings, grief phases, methods for reminiscence and memorial tributes, to issues of illness, death and burial of a pet. *Audie Award Winner!

Grieving the Loss of Your Pet (2003)
Audio CD by Peggy Haymes and Susan Lautemann, counselors. Using insights gained from many years of counseling grieving people as well as their personal experience with their own pets, Peggy Haymes and Susan Lautemann guide you through the grieving process. They address common questions such as "Where is my pet now?" and questions about euthanasia. Guided meditations allow you to re-experience the joyful connections that you had with your pet. A reading of "The Rainbow Bridge" is also included.

Forever Friends: Resolving Grief After the Loss of a Beloved Animal (1993)
By Joan Coleman. This book teaches you relaxation and visualization techniques and provides a series of exercises to help you deal with the stress and grief and to focus on the positive. And, it helps ensure that all the loving moments you have experienced with your pet will not be forgotten. A question and answer section covers sensitive areas such as euthanasia in a loving, compassionate way. Other topics covered include: Children and Pet Loss; Does Your Pet Have An Afterlife; and, Memorializing Your Pet (through photographs, paw prints, poems, sculptures, a lock of hair, etc.).

Blessing the Bridge: What Animals Teach Us About Death, Dying , and Beyond (2000)
Like a hospice worker, author Rita M. Reynolds cares for sick and dying animals, helping them comfortably cross the threshold into death. At times, Blessing the Bridge reads like a kindly vet's instruction book, teaching basic skills in respectfully handling a dying animal such as a beloved dog that's terminally ill. Readers learn ways to make an animal comfortable, such as laying wild animals to rest in beds of flowers or letting domestic animals die in a human's arms.

What separates Reynolds from other authors that write about caring for sick and dying animals is her willingness to take the process into a more intuitive and spiritual realm. Reynolds offers suggestions for how to dialogue with dying animals to find out their preferences--whether they wish to die on their own or die through the mercy of euthanasia. She also believes in divine and angelic influences when it comes to helping animals cross over. Many of her lessons are conveyed through real-life stories. Reynolds shows us how to ritualize and soothe animals' deaths, while also offering us abiding wisdom about life on earth.

Angel Dogs : Divine Messengers of Love (2005)
By Allen and Linda Anderson.Angel Dogs demonstrates that dogs are not only faithful companions but also spiritual guides. Stories include the four-legged speech therapist who helped a scared boy find his voice; the dog who came "special delivery" through the mail at just the right moment in a family’s life; the dog who helped guard Air Force One; dogs from the canine corps; service dogs; and many others. The book also details new scientific findings on how dogs can save lives, sniff out cancerous tumors, and warn epileptics of impending seizures. Each story is followed by a short meditation that helps readers focus on the messages of love that dogs bring to their lives.

Legacies of Love: A Gentle Guide to Healing from the Loss of Your Animal Loved One (1998)
Audiobook written by Teresa L. Wagner. This is the first pet loss book to openly challenge and dissolve the myth that it is not healthy, and perhaps wrong, for humans to bond with, love and grieve animals as much as they do humans. If you've given up hope that anyone would ever understand the depth of your love for animals or your profound grief when you lose them, take heart from this special audiobook. Listeners learn why animal loss is different and learn tools to not only cope with grief, but to truly heal and find meaning from loss. They are guided through a magical meditation with an original score of soothing music.

Dogwood and Catnip : Living Tributes, Departed Pets We Have Loved and Lost (2003)
By Marsha Olson, a grief counselor who has also worked professionally in landscape and garden design.  Creative ideas for planting a living memorial in honor of a lost pet. Included is information on symbolic plants and flowers, planting ceremonial trees and grave markers, thematic garden accents, and informal ceremonies for dedicating your memory garden.

The Final Farewell: Preparing for and Mourning the Loss of Your Pet (1997)
By Marty Tousley & Katherine Heuerman.This book combines the expertise of a bereavement counselor with that of an expert in after-death pet care. It includes information about euthanasia and the grieving process. It also explains in detail all of the options that are available when our pets die. Unlike other books on pet loss, it is really meant to be read in advance of a pet's death. In that way, we will be in a better position to make these kinds of decisions.

Surviving the Heartbreak of Choosing Death for Your Pet: Your Personal Guide for Dealing with Pet Euthanasia (1997)
By Linda Mary Peterson. This is a very helpful book for folks who must deal with the pain of having their dog euthanized. It helps pet owners to understand that it is a very brave and unselfish deed to be able to choose death for their beloved companions.

Good-bye My Friend: Grieving the Death of a Pet (1991)
By Mary & Herb Montgomery.Good-bye My Friend is a sympathetic explanation of grief and how to cope with the loss of a pet. Includes the stages of grief, grieving in your own way, the angry feelings, outlets for grief, how long will the grieving last, will I see my pet again, helping children deal with pet loss, and more.

Crossing the Rubicon: Celebrating the Human-Animal Bond in Life and Death (1999)
By Julie Kaufman. Dr. Kaufman is a Doctor of Chiropractic and a Certified Animal Chiropractor as well. This book is made up of a collection of stories, poems, interviews and exercises. It is helpful to anyone coping with the loss of a dear animal friend, but also aids in learning how to help others grieve the loss. This book explores the full meaning of the physical, psychological and spiritual roles pets play in our lives. To help the ones left behind, a series of exercises is provided as an aid in the grieving process. These exercises show how we can ease the sorrow, renew the spirit and celebrate the lives of our pets through ceremony, ritual and memory recollection.

Grieving the Death of a Pet (2003)
By Betty Carmack. The author draws on biblical wisdom, her own experience, and interviews with dozens of pet lovers to guide the reader through the initial loss of a pet to the dawning of new hope and reassurance.

Conversations with My Old Dog : For Anyone Who Has Ever Loved and Lost a Pet (2000)
By Robert Pasick, Ph.D., psychologist and teacher. "Do you ever talk to your dogs? I confess. I do." Thus Robert Pasick welcomes you to listen in on his soulful chats with his devoted yellow Lab, Lucy. Pasick captures "conversations" with this faithful friend in this collection of poetry, which gently explores the stuff of everyday life: worry, forgiveness, friendship, loss, and old age. Conversations with My Old Dog is written with the clarity and candor that accompany long walks in the woods with a trusted companion.

Spirit Dogs: Heroes in Heaven (1998)
By Susan Kelleher and illustrated by Rod Lawrence. It is a heartwarming fantasy that can actually bring hope. The short story involves a woman and her dog who are in a car accident. In a near-death experience, they travel through a tunnel of light to canine heaven where the woman is greeted by all of the dogs she owned during her life. One, a collie who saved her life as a child, tells her about the evolution of the canine soul towards that of saving a human life or serving humans in an exceptional way. She learns about the ever present love that even deceased dogs have for their humans. Finally, she returns to Earth, leaving behind her beloved Ivan, who is destined to become a hero. The author of this book knows what it is to lose the friend of a lifetime, as we learn that she had to allow her 14-year-old Golden to go and be free from pain.

Cold Noses At the Pearly Gates: A Book of Hope (1997)
By Gary Kurz. The author's goal was to reach those who were grieving as he did with the loss of his pets. And, he wanted to touch readers in the same way he was touched by his research. The books provides logical answers to the question of where animals go when they die. And, it is filled with heartwarming stories of all different types of animals.

Dog Gone: Coping with the Loss of a Pet Revised (2000)
By Howard Bronson. This is a most empathetic and healing book. It is filled with charming vignettes and actual children's illustrations of their own pets. Howard Bronson has written eight books on bereavement, self-empowerment, and creativity.

It's Okay to Cry (2000)
By Maria Quintana, Shari Veleba & Harley King. It contains the voices of 62 people whose pets have died. There are stories from pet owners, veterinarians, animal trainers, policemen, firemen, war veterans, animal trainers, zoo keepers, dog wardens, children, celebrities, and pet counselors. Reading their stories will help you realize that you are not alone. And, the stories may be able to give you hope that you, too, can heal the pain of loss. Although these touching stories may bring tears to your eyes, they will surely bring comfort to your heart.

Three Cats, Two Dogs: One Journey Through Multiple Pet Loss (2000)
By David Congalton. This author survived every pet lover's worst nightmare — all of his animal companions simultaneously died due to a sudden house fire. Although the story begins with tragedy, it ends with redemption and the formation of a new animal family. In the end, deep sadness is transformed into a commitment to abused and abandoned animals.
 
The Souls of Animals (1999)
By Gary Kowalski.  A book to put you in touch with your animal friends. Explores the questions: Are animals aware of death? Do they have a sense of the mysterious? Why do animals draw? Do animals know right from wrong? Do animals experience love? Are animals conscious of themselves? Why do animals sing or dance? Would we lose our own souls in a world without animals? Do animals have souls?

Dog Heaven (1995)
By Cynthia Rylant. If you have ever been lucky enough to have a special dog in your life, then you know there is a place called Dog Heaven.  "When dogs go to Heaven, they don't need wings because G-d knows that dogs love running best. There are children, of course. Angel Children. G-d knows that dogs love children more than anything else in the world, so He fills Dog Heaven with plenty of them. Every angel who passes by has a biscuit for a dog. And, of course, all G-d's dogs sit when the angels say 'sit' as all become good dogs in Dog Heaven."

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