Memorializing a Pet

Losing a pet can be a very difficult time. One way to help yourself focus on those positive memories is to develop a memorial or tribute to your pet. Creating such a tribute can be an effective tool to help you cope with grief and it will also provide you with a loving reminder of that pet in the years to come.

Here are a few ideas to honour your pet's memory:

• Put your pet's picture in a photo-display box (one that has a place in the top for a photo). Put some of the pet's treasures inside the box, such as a collar or a lock of hair.
   
• Place a memorial stone or marker in your garden, even if you have not buried your pet at home.
   
• Keep a journal to help you through the grieving process. Record your pet's life story in that journal.
   
• Build your own website in tribute to your pet.
   
• Put a special statue (not necessarily a funeral marker) in a garden spot that your pet loved. E.g., a statue of a pet, or of an angel, or St. Francis.
• Create a stepping stone for your garden in memory of your pet, or to mark its grave or the burial place of its ashes.
   
• Create a farewell event for your pets with friends and family. Celebrate sharing photos and stories about your pet.

Try to avoid turning a memorial into a "shrine" however. This can keep one's mind and heart focused on the "death and loss" of their pet rather than on loving and remembering. Your pet was a part of your life, and its tribute should also be a part of your life -- not a perpetual reminder of its death.

Graphics Unlimited can help you commemorate your pets life with our sandblasted stone pet memorials Click here for more information.