Pet loss resources
Losing a pet is a real loss, and the grief that comes with it is real too. If you are in the middle of it, you do not have to sit with it alone. Below are free support resources, gathered in one place and checked to make sure they are current. None of them are us. They are people and organizations who do this work.
Someone you can call
A free hotline staffed by trained veterinary-student volunteers. You can stay anonymous. Staffed most evenings and weekend afternoons, Eastern time.
Free, non-judgmental support for grief, euthanasia decisions, and the death of a pet, from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. Staffed weekday evenings, with voicemail returned at the next shift.
Free coach-led virtual support groups and one-on-one sessions, plus a support center available every day of the year.
Online support and community
Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement
Staffed online chat rooms, video support groups, and free webinars, including one on the grief that starts before a pet has gone.
Rainbow Bridge
Memorial pages, a community forum, and a maintained directory of pet-loss hotlines run by veterinary schools and others.
Pet Loss at Home
A resources page with online support communities, a self-paced grief workbook, recommended reading, and independent counselors.
Best Friends Animal Society
A curated, non-commercial collection of grief resources: support groups, guided meditations, recorded workshops, and books for adults and children.
If the grief is heavier than that, and you are in crisis or having thoughts of harming yourself, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is free and available every hour of every day. Call or text 988. It is for people, not pets, and reaching out is allowed.
Quiet ways to honor them
There is no correct way to do this, and no timeline. A few things other people have found steadying:
Write down three specific things. The sound of their feet on the floor. The spot they always chose. The specifics fade first, so they are the ones worth keeping.
Keep one good photo somewhere you actually see it, not buried in a camera roll you scroll past. Some people have a portrait made from that photo as a way to keep the animal in the room; we make these, and we handle them gently. A framed print on the shelf does the same work.
Mark the day in some small way if you want to. Plant something. Give to a shelter in their name. Let the people who knew the animal say so.