Anyone who’s ever had a dog, cat or other companion animal can tell you how hard it is emotionally when a pet dies or goes missing. These three podcasts on A Good Goodbye Radio provide many great tips help address pet loss.
A Good Goodbye is an entertaining and educational 60-minute online radio show on “everything you need to know before you go,” covering a wide range of critical information most people don’t consider until there’s a death in the family. Host Gail Rubin brings a light touch to a serious subject and presents expert interviews on funeral planning issues with practical insights into the party no one wants to plan.
By planning ahead and having a conversation, families can reduce stress at a time of grief, minimize family conflict, save money and create a meaningful, memorable “good goodbye.”
Pet Loss and Disenfranchised Grief
Coleen Ellis and Ellie
Any dog or cat owner will tell you pets are members of the family. Yet when a fur child dies or disappears, grief over pet loss is often dismissed. What can pet parents do?
Coleen Ellis, founder of Two Hearts Pet Loss Center and co-chair of the Pet Loss Professionals Alliance (PLPA), has been there. She’s the author of Pet Parents: A Journey Through Unconditional Love and Grief. Pet parents and pet care professionals nationwide are using the book as a resource, an educational teaching tool and a source of comfort.
Some aspects of pet loss and grieving discussed on this podcast:
- Ideas to help celebrate the special bonds people share with their pets;
- How to choose the right cremation provider or funeral home;
- Ways that pets can be honored in life and in death;
- How death-care professionals, veterinarians and others are taking steps to serve pet parents;
- Where people can find resources to help process their pet loss and grief.
Listen to the podcast:
This program was sponsored by Vet-Co, providing quality pet care at affordable prices in Albuquerque and Los Lunas, New Mexico. Visit their website and blog at www.VetCoNM.com.
Love Lessons From Our Animal Companions
Our animal companions share great love with their human families. When pets depart this physical sphere, they can teach their human friends important lessons about the eternalness of being.
David Hutchings, author of I’m Still Here: Recognizing the Eternalness of Our Companion Animals, joins host Gail Rubin on A Good Goodbye Radio. He discusses lessons humans can learn about love, wellbeing and spirituality from our dogs, cats and other pets. Topics include:
- How companion animals model ways for humans to release grief
- What Eternity Blindness is and how it impacts human mourning
- Ways to help companion animals transition at the end of their physical lifetimes
- Lessons about love and life our pets convey to humans
- The spirituality of the human/companion animal bond
Listen to the podcast:
Helping Pets with Home Hospice Care
Hospice for pets is a growing trend, just as compassionate end-of-life care is growing for people. When pet owners look to ease the pain of a pet’s death, they also seek a more meaningful goodbye.
Kathryn Marocchino, a professor of death and dying at California State University in Vallejo and founder of the Nikki Hospice Foundation for Pets, joins host Gail Rubin on A Good GoodbyeRadio to discuss the end-of-life care movement for pets.
Topics include:
- What pet owners need to know about their ailing pets to make informed quality-of-life decisions
- How pet hospice and in-home euthanasia are different
- Why pet hospice is a growing movement
- What the growth of pet hospice says about our culture
- How pet owners can become better prepared to deal with people deaths
Listen to the podcast:
When making your estate or funeral plans, remember to include provisions for your pets when you plan! You can also find good information about pet loss and pet trusts in these two books by Gail Rubin: A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die and KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die.