In Loving Memory of our Very Best Friends

This new area of Ark Online is to be devoted to tributes to those special animals in our lives and the lives of our readers, that have passed on. The addition of this section was prompted by the sudden loss of my favorite dog of all time, Banjo, on August 13, 1997. The death of a pet can be devastating. Banjo was an integral part of my life and family and we treated each other like father and son. I know that millions of other people also have grieved deeply when someone with whom one shares such strong bonds dies. I strongly recommend Ed Williams' excellent site, http://petloss.com for those who have lost such a friend. There are also a number of excellent books available to help work through the grieving process. See our list below.

Please read the Rainbow Bridge Story at Ed's site and, if you have lost a loved one, consider posting a tribute there. If you would like to also post a tribute here at ArkOnline, we would be happy to add it to this section, or provide a link to a web page of your choice. If you wish to post the tribute here, and want to include a picture of your pet, we will be happy to add that as well. Photos should be sent as an email attachment preferably in JPEG format.

Click on this link to read more about Banjo. With his passing we have all suffered an enormous loss and he will be greatly missed.

Four months after Banjo's passing, my other golden retriever, Sutter, died. Click on this link to read more about Sutter.

-Bob Schlesinger

Pet Bereavement Resources

We strongly recommend My Personal Pet Remberance Journal by Enid Samuel Traisman, M.S.W. as an excellent vehicle to help work through the grieving process by guiding you through the process of building your own journal of memories and feelings as they relate to the life and death of your companion animal. You actually write about your friend in the book to personalize it. The author is a professional grief counselor and is the author of several books for people who have suffered the death of a loved one. The book can be ordered (in quantites of less than 10) from the company below

Direct Book Services
PO Box 2778
Wenatchee, WA  98807
1-800-776-2665
dgetbook@cascade.net

For quantity orders the author can be contacted directly:

Enid Traisman, M.S.W.
3957 NE Couch St.
Portland, OR  97232
1-503-234-2061

If you are in the Portland, Oregon area, the Dove Lewis Emergency Animal Hospital provides free Pet Loss Support Groups four times a month. For a brochure and more information, call (503) 228-7282.

Here are some other books on pet loss:

When your Pet Dies. How to cope with your feelings by Jamie Quackenbush, M.S.W. and Denise Graveline. (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1985)

Coping with the Loss of a Pet by Christina M. Lemiux, Ph.D. (Wallace Clark Publishers, Reading PA, 1992)

Good-bye My Friend, Grieving the Loss of a Pet by Mary and Herb Montgomery (Montgomery Press, Minneapolis, MN, 1994)

Pet Loss: A Thoughtful Guide for Adults and Children by Herbert A. Nieburg and Arlene Fisher (Harper & Row, New York, 1982)

Animals as Teachers and Healers by Susan Chernak McElroy (Sage Press, Portland OR, 1996)