Setting pet loss and grief standards

Today, there are over 750 pet funeral homes, pet crematories and pet cemeteries across the nation — and a lot of human funeral homes have or are now offering pet cremation and services as part of their business. As a pet loss expert, I was proud to be among these pioneers the past 2 days at the second annual Pet Loss Professional Alliance Conference in Las Vegas.  The group met to set and maintain standards for services related to pet deaths, such as funerals, memorials, cremations and burials. 


While business goals and marketing efforts were discussed, there were also panels for compassion fatigue and pet loss.  It is great to have a confirmation that I too was on the right path. I look forward in taking all that I've learned at the conference and putting it into practice when I return. A perfect opportunity in combining a previous career in the design world with my current grief coaching practice to create interactive tools for vet techs and rescue teams will be part of Luxepet's 2011 efforts.  


For now, more visioning and thinking as I get ready to come home. Next stop, Venice CA to give hugs to my furry family. 

Hopes and dreams in grief

In our darkest hours, dreams and hopes may be the farthest things from our minds. Yet, they can also serve as our heartstrings, our conduit in journeying through our grief to the other side. Hope is the wheel of momentum that keeps us moving forward. Dreams are what we hold close to our hearts.

Just for today, can you allow yourself to feel whatever you may be feeling, sadness, depression, heartache, loneliness, AND have hope in your heart that this WILL pass. It WILL pass with the work you are committed to doing in moving through the grief. By sharing your thoughts, talking and reaching out to loved ones for support, writing down feelings and emotions, getting it out and through you so that it does not weigh you down like a lead weight/sinker at the end of a fishing line and BECOME you, these positive action steps brings you closer to hopefulness.