Ordinarily we don’t think about making final arrangements for our companion animals in advance, even thought intellectually we know that their life spans are so much shorter than our own – and that fatal accidents and terminal illness can happen. In our death-denying culture, we have a hard enough time acknowledging our own mortality. Some of us may take care of our own funeral, burial or cremation arrangements well in advance of our deaths (or at least make our wishes known), but we rarely think to do so for our pets. Most people avoid such realities until they are forced to confront them.

When a pet is critically ill or has died, the mourning process and the decisions surrounding it are especially difficult. All at once owners must cope with overwhelming feelings of loss, make decisions, necessary arrangements for body care, and all too often deal with the insensitivity of others. Regardless of whether closeness to animals is accepted as normal in our culture, when faced with losing that special relationship, we’re rarely prepared for the enormity of the grief we feel. And until we’re actually confronted with the situation, we may not realize that our pet’s death carries with it the responsibility of arranging what will happen to our pet’s body after death.

By understanding and accepting that losing our pets is inevitable, we have an opportunity to prepare before we suffer the shock of losing them. We need not wait until we’re in crisis. We know that the more you know what to expect, the more you know what your options are – and the more you can plan ahead – the less stressful the process will be. I hope this information helps you prepare for and get through this most difficult time.