The loss of a pet can be as devastating as the loss of any other family member. As you move through the stages of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, and depression, creating a memorial to celebrate the life of your beloved companion can be a huge aid toward reaching that last stage, acceptance. It’s not only okay to grieve, the loss of a pet, it’s necessary for healing. Creating a personalized pet memorial validates your feelings while allowing you to remember and come to grips with your loss.
The options for a pet memorial are limitless. Memorials can be just about anything you can imagine. You can create inexpensive pet memorials that are meaningful and healing for your family. Your values, tastes, personality and budget will all be part of your decision making process as you choose your pet memorial. It can be a wonderful healing process to include the whole family, including children, in creating your memorial.
Some common pet memorials include:
Pet Memorial Garden Stones
These can be wonderful for pets that enjoyed the outdoors. They can be carved with a pet’s name or picture and place in a favorite spot in the yard. Stone pet memorials could even be used as grave markers. There are several websites that will make custom engraved pet memorials. As an inexpensive option, you can also create your own at home if you have the right equipment. Alternately, you can easily paint your own memorial garden stone, but make sure to also seal the stone with a clear waterproof glaze if it will be kept outdoors.
Online Pet Memorials
There are pet memorial websites popping up all over all the time. Some began with an individual creating a memorial of their own pet, and allowing space for others to share their loss as well. Others are part of a larger pet-related site where the allow people to post pictures of their pets and a little note to share their memory with the cyber-world. Many of these sites allow you to create a simple memorial for free, and others may charge a small fee, or offer upgrades to better graphics or more space for a charge. There are also all those sites out there that allow the free creation of a web=page for any purpose. You can use myspace.com, or freewebs.com, or a free bloging site to create a simple, inexpensive pet memorial.
Photo Pet Memorials
Sometimes you want a memorial that you can hold in your hands or look in a way that you can’t do on a computer. Photo pet memorials can be just as unique and diverse as the other options. You can create a small scrapbook with your favorite photos of your beloved pet, and include some journaling to tell the story of their life. This can be a great project for children to help with. The whole family could even each make their own page to include in a book.
Another idea for making a simple photo pet memorial, is to frame a photo of your pet, either by itself, or with of the many touching poems available about pets. If you’ve chosen to have your pet cremated, many companies offer special photo urns. You can inquire about the choices from your veterinarian, or straight from the pet cremation company if you are dealing with them directly.
There is really no limit to the type of memorial you can create for your pet. It can be as fancy or as simple as your imagination. It should be something that can help anyone in your family who is grieving a chance to remember and to mourn. The stages of grief shouldn’t be rushed. Take your time to remember and memorialize your pet for the glory of celebrating their life, and for the sake of validating your own loss.
