Watching your senior pet age or losing a beloved pet to illness or an accident is devastating. Pet loss grief can be overwhelming, and is only made harder when those around us just don’t understand, or make insensitive remarks. There is no right or wrong way to grieve, and definitely no time limit. It will be different for every person and with every loss.

Honestly, even after 25 years as a vet tech, and many personal pet losses throughout my life, nothing prepared me for losing my beloved pug mix Becca last summer. I still cry almost every time I think about her, and I haven’t been able to properly memorialize her yet … but I know I will do something extra special when the time is right.

Even if your pet has already crossed the rainbow bridge, you can still explore new ways to carry them in your heart. Creating new memories during your pet’s senior years or finding ways to celebrate the memory of a pet who has passed on can help you in your own healing process.

How you honor your pet is up to you and will help their life story continue on. That’s how I felt when we brought the ashes of the cats and rabbits that we’d had in Toronto with us when we moved to New Brunswick and finally buried them in a flowerbed at our forever home. We carried on that tradition when our Persian cat Stompy (Stompin’ Tom) died last year, and we planted a special rose bush on his grave. I also picked my favourite portrait of him and made it into a beautiful framed canvas that hangs in our living room now.

If you’re searching for a way to celebrate your pet’s life, I’d like to share these 11 ways that can help you carry them in your heart.

1. Hire a photographer for a professional pet portrait session.

Don’t wait. Do it while your pet feels good and will look the way you want to remember them, but know that if you’ve found out their time is short, most pet photographers (including me) will move heaven and earth to fit you into their schedule ASAP.

As a professional pet photographer with a background in animal care, I’m an expert at making your pets feel comfortable and at ease so their true personalities can shine through in their photos. Until I lost Becca, even I didn’t truly understand the value of what I do. Many clients have told me the pet portraits I made for them are their most priceless possessions. Now, I get it.

2. Create a custom piece of wall art.

If your pet has already passed, you can make (or hire someone to make) a piece of art that celebrates your pet’s life. Or you can gather a number of photographs and artworks to frame and gather together on one wall. Check out this Pinterest Board I made up of ideas for a pet-themed gallery wall.

There are a couple of amazing local artists here in Moncton who take commissions for pet artwork. Ji Hyang Ryu creates stunning bold and colourful paintings, and Andre Boulard does incredibly detailed pencil sketches.

Another alternative is that I can make digitally hand-painted portraits suitable for printing large enough to hang on the wall, even from poor-quality or low-resolution photos. They look amazing printed on fine art papers or canvases and are a classic way to display an extra special portrait or to honour a deceased pet.

An example of one of my digitally hand painted portraits of a horse, made from a very small section of the reference photo.

3. Make a memorial donation to a shelter or rescue.

Many people now request memorial donations to a meaningful cause, in lieu of flowers at funerals. This can be a lovely way to memorialize a pet or support a loved one who is grieving a pet loss, as well. Organizations like animal shelters depend on these types of donations. Check with yours to see if they have a memorial program like a brick patio, or plaques on visiting room furniture, etc. What a helpful way to honor your pet! The personalized patio brick or bench will serve as a physical legacy for your pet.

4. Create your own memorial paw print or nose print art in ceramics or with garden stones.

My favorite is this idea to make a flower painting out of your pet paw prints. Make sure you use pet-friendly, non-toxic inks, paints, and other supplies!

5. Turn their water or food bowls into house planters.

Depending on the material, you can upcycle a deceased pet’s food or water bowls to provide a home for a new houseplant! If it doesn't already bear their name, you can decorate it with their collar, tags, or paw prints. This would be a cute idea for plants that don’t require a lot of depth or drainage, like small cacti or succulents.

6. Make a memory box.

…and then look through it whenever you miss them. Custom memory boxes that hold matted print collections are one of my most popular items, and many clients use the boxes to store their pet mementos after they’ve framed the prints for their walls.

A fully customized pet memory box holding a collection of mounted photo prints.

7. Add a memorial stone, tree, or shrub at their burial site, choose a beautiful urn, or spread their ashes in a meaningful spot.

Completing the burial process can be an important part of grieving, but not everyone is ready right away or has a place to do it. Cremation can give you more time to decide what you’d like to do. Forever Friends Pet Memorials and Forget Me Not Pet Aftercare both offer private cremation services and urns, right here in Southern New Brunswick.

As I said earlier, we brought all our pet ashes with us from Toronto. We were renters and didn’t want to bury them there when we knew we wouldn’t be there forever. It was only when we bought our house here that we felt we had a permanent enough home for them.

Personally, I love flowering trees and shrubs, like lilacs, weigela, and of course roses. I’m looking for an extra special rose for Becca’s grave, right now. If you don’t have a yard where you can plant something, Better Place Forests sells memorial trees to honor pets and other family members.

8. Compose a pet obituary.

You can post pet obituaries on websites like Pet Heaven and Ever Loved. Even if you don’t want to share it publicly, writing one can be cathartic and it can help you to articulate your feelings at this difficult time.

9. Get hand-painted ornaments made.

I have hand-painted ornaments of all my pets, and they are my most treasured Christmas decorations. I have one set from Marie Bee’s Art, right here in Moncton, and another set from Susan N. Sweet in NS who does incredible work.

10. Get cremated remains incorporated into beautiful glass objects or beads.

This is one I plan to do, and I actually held back a small amount of the ashes from Felix, Chainsaw, Basil, Bianca, and Natasha Nogoodnik (very naughty bunny) when we buried them so that I could do this. Glass blowers like Glass Roots (right here in NB!) can make memorial items like paperweights, ornamental glass sculptures and beads with a small quantity of cremation ashes in them.

11. Get a stuffy made in your pet’s likeness.

There are companies that can make custom stuffed animals that look like your pet. Check out Cuddle Clones, I’ve had a couple of clients use photos from their sessions with me as references to have these made.

The anticipatory grief (yup, it’s a thing) of watching your pet age or dealing with the grief following a pet’s death can be even harder for some people to manage than the loss of a human loved one. Please don’t hesitate to seek out professional support if that feels right for you. One Last Network is a group of pet photographers who offer end-of-life sessions, but there is also a podcast and lots of pet loss grief resources available through the site and on the blog. There is also a Veterinary Social Worker right here in Atlantic Canada who offers pet loss bereavement counseling.

If you’re ready to book a portrait session for your pet, or if you have a photo of a deceased pet that you would like to see transformed into a beautiful artwork, reach out for more details.

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