The Funeral.com Journal

Resources to help you create tributes as unique as the people (and pets) you love. Learn how engraving, photos, colors, and symbols add meaning; discover scattering rituals and at-home memorial ideas. We focus on the details that matter—because small choices can carry a lifetime of comfort.

I Don't Want Another Pet Ever Again: Is This Feeling Permanent?

I Don't Want Another Pet Ever Again: Is This Feeling Permanent?

In the days and weeks after losing a beloved animal, a fierce thought can rise up and take over: “I am never doing this again.” It can feel like a...

How Long Does Pet Grief Usually Last?

How Long Does Pet Grief Usually Last?

The loss of a pet can leave a profound emptiness that touches every corner of daily life. The absence of their presence, whether in the quiet moments at home, during...

Is It Normal To Feel This Devastated After My Pet Dies?

Is It Normal To Feel This Devastated After My Pet Dies?

The emptiness hits in quiet moments, an empty food bowl, a bed no longer warmed by familiar weight, or the silence that greets you when you come home. You might...

When Pet Grief Feels Overwhelming: Mental Health Insights and When to Get Extra Help

When Pet Grief Feels Overwhelming: Mental Health Insights and When to Get Extra Help

If you are reading this because you feel like you are falling apart after losing a pet, I want to say this plainly: nothing about your reaction is “too much.”...

The Neurology of Attachment: Why Your Brain Panics When Your Pet Is Gone

The Neurology of Attachment: Why Your Brain Panics When Your Pet Is Gone

On an ordinary day, your brain quietly expects certain things: the click of claws on the floor, the weight of a body at your feet, the way your cat’s tail...

When People Don’t Understand Your Pet Grief: Coping With “It Was Only a Dog”

When People Don’t Understand Your Pet Grief: Coping With “It Was Only a Dog”

When a pet dies, your world can tilt on its axis. You may find yourself reaching out with your foot at night for a familiar warm body that isn’t there,...

Guilt After Pet Euthanasia: What’s Normal, What Isn’t, and How to Heal

Guilt After Pet Euthanasia: What’s Normal, What Isn’t, and How to Heal

There are few decisions in life as heart-wrenching as choosing euthanasia for a beloved pet. Even when your heart knows that their suffering has become unbearable and that their body...

Compassion Fatigue and Pet Loss: When Rescuers and Shelter Workers Are Grieving

Compassion Fatigue and Pet Loss: When Rescuers and Shelter Workers Are Grieving

If you work in rescue, animal control, or a shelter, grief rarely comes as a single event. It arrives in waves—sick kittens who do not make it through the night,...

How Long Does Pet Loss Grief Last? What Research and Real Stories Suggest

How Long Does Pet Loss Grief Last? What Research and Real Stories Suggest

When a beloved pet dies, time can feel strange. Some days the loss is sharp and raw, as if it happened this morning. Other days you move through work and...

Coping with the Loss of a Pet: Grief Stages, Rituals, and When to Seek Support

Coping with the Loss of a Pet: Grief Stages, Rituals, and When to Seek Support

When a pet dies, the whole rhythm of home changes. The quiet by the food bowl, the empty spot on the couch, the way you still half-expect the jingle of...

Pet Loss and Mental Health: Anxiety, Depression, and When to Seek Extra Support

Pet Loss and Mental Health: Anxiety, Depression, and When to Seek Extra Support

If you are grieving a pet and also noticing your anxiety or depression getting worse, you are not “too sensitive,” and you are not alone. For many people, losing a...

Healing Rituals for the First 30 Days After a Pet Dies

Healing Rituals for the First 30 Days After a Pet Dies

When a pet dies, time does not move in neat calendar blocks. The first 30 days after a pet dies can feel both endless and blurred—mornings without a familiar routine,...

Giving Away Pet Items: When to Hold On and When to Let Go

Giving Away Pet Items: When to Hold On and When to Let Go

Sometime after a pet dies, there is a quiet moment when you open the closet, or walk past the food bowl, and realize that their things are still exactly where...

Losing a Service Dog or Emotional Support Animal: A Unique Kind of Grief

Losing a Service Dog or Emotional Support Animal: A Unique Kind of Grief

Some losses leave a silence so deep, it changes the way you move through the world, losing a service dog or emotional support animal (ESA) is one of them. This...

When a Pet Dies in an Accident: Trauma, Guilt, and How to Begin Healing

When a Pet Dies in an Accident: Trauma, Guilt, and How to Begin Healing

The world can change in an instant. When a pet dies suddenly in an accident, grief often hits like a shockwave. One moment, life feels ordinary; the next, everything is...

Sleeping After a Pet Dies: Why Nights Are So Hard and How to Cope

Sleeping After a Pet Dies: Why Nights Are So Hard and How to Cope

The first nights after a pet dies are often some of the longest of your life. Days can feel heavy, but nights carry a unique weight, made of silence, emptiness,...