When a pet dies

Pages for the owner and for the people around them: what to write, poems to read or send, what helps with grief, and how to keep the memories.

• Coping with the loss of a pet

  Grief after a dog or cat dies: what is normal, the goodbye, children, other pets, burial or cremation, a new pet, and where to find free support.

• The Rainbow Bridge: who wrote it, what it means, and six new poems

  What the Rainbow Bridge means, who wrote it in 1959, and six new poems for a dog, cat or small pet that has died, free to use on a card.

• When someone's pet dies: what to say, and what to write in a card

  What to say or write when someone's dog or cat has died: short texts, card messages, what to leave out, and what you can do in the weeks after.

• A message to a friend whose pet has died

  What to text a friend whose dog or cat has died: a first message for each situation, what to send weeks later, and what to do when they post about it.

• When your dog has died: what to do now, and what can wait

  Your dog has died, at home or at the vet. What to do in the first hour, cremation or burial, the calls and records in the days after, and what can wait.

• Pet memorial ideas: what to keep, what to make, what to write

  Ways to remember a pet that has died, from things to keep before the body goes to ideas that cost nothing, with words for a stone, plaque or frame.

• Explaining a pet's death to a child

  How to tell a child that the family pet has died: the words to use, what children understand at each age, euthanasia, saying goodbye and what helps after.

• A memorial poem about your pet

  Type the name of your dog, cat or other pet and three things they did, and get a short memorial poem about them, free, for a card, an urn or a post.