I've spent most of my adult life caring for other people's dogs. I know the particular love that lives in that work — and I know the particular grief that follows it. His name was Chance. He was seventeen and a half years old, and for most of those years, he was the first thing I saw in the morning and the last thing I checked on at night. This is the story of losing my own, and everything I learned along the way. I keep rehashing the last 72 hours of my sweet boy's life. It's an obsessive...

The death of a beloved pet brings with it a complicated set of emotions: sadness and grief, of course, but also, in the case of euthanasia, guilt and anxiety that you’ve done the right thing, and regret if you feel you haven’t acted quickly enough to spare your pet some suffering. Add to that the anger at those who, even if they mean well, minimize or marginalize your grief because your pet is “just” an animal, and the plain old anticipatory grief that comes with watching your pup decline as...

As humans In relationship with dogs we often think about our own needs rather than those of our canine companions. We want them to sit, we want them to be calm, we want them to not bark. We want them to snuggle when we want to snuggle, and to give us space when we need It. But dogs rely on us humans for everything from food, water, and shelter to where and when they can use the bathroom. One of the most important things we can do as pet parents is to learn to put our wants and needs aside...