Honoring Our Animals

Honoring Our Animals Beth Bigler, GC-C, PGSS-C
🐾Pet Loss Grief Counselor 🐾
💔Support before & after your loss

08/29/2026

Share something about your beloved in the comments! We’re listening 🧡

Have you felt this?⁠⁠Our beloveds offer a unique kind of love that’s safe, predictable, and steady. This unwavering bond...
08/29/2026

Have you felt this?⁠
⁠
Our beloveds offer a unique kind of love that’s safe, predictable, and steady. This unwavering bond creates a sanctuary where we feel completely accepted and understood.⁠
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Unlike human relationships, pets don't judge or hold grudges. Their love is unconditional, offering a constant source of comfort and reassurance, no matter what we’re going through.⁠
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This reliability is incredibly powerful. Our pets are our emotional anchors, grounding us during turbulent times and bringing joy during moments of sorrow. Their presence alone can soothe our anxieties and lift our spirits.⁠
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When a soulmate pet dies, the loss is profound. We not only lose a companion but also the stability and security they brought into our lives. The predictable comfort of their presence is suddenly gone, leaving a void that feels impossible to fill.⁠
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The grief can be intense because we’re mourning more than “just a pet;” we’re grieving the loss of a relationship that was pure and constant. This relationship is often the most important one we have, offering a type of connection that is hard to find elsewhere.⁠
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Understanding why this bond is so powerful can help validate the depth of your grief. It's okay to feel devastated by their transition; it’s a testament to the love and connection you share.⁠
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How has your soulmate pet provided you with comfort and stability? Share your stories in the comments to help others feel less alone in their grief.

08/28/2026

Don’t love imagining your soulmate pet at the “Rainbow Bridge?”

You’re not alone, and it’s okay to not find this concept supportive in your pet loss grief.

It’s become a default phrase for many who encounter pet loss, and most people who have lost animals will have someone near them bring it up during their grief.

In my pet loss grief counseling practice, I regularly work with clients who find the idea of the Rainbow Bridge out of alignment with their experience, and sometimes they feel like “bad” pet guardians because of it.

If it doesn’t resonate for you, I validate those feelings and encourage you to speak up to those around you about using different language or comfort words that are more in alignment with what feels supportive to you.

If you’re not sure what those phrases might be, it’s a great brainstorm to have with yourself as a way to step up and participate in your grief journey today.

If you are a Rainbow Bridge fan, there’s no shame here for loving it. I’m glad it works for you and I celebrate the comfort it brings.

Some might be shocked that there are others who find it unsupportive, and that’s part of the awareness I’m raising today. If you’re supporting a grieving guardian, listen carefully for how they speak about their beloved and their beliefs. Let them mention the Rainbow Bridge first, and if they do, you know it’s a belief they find comforting.

Pet loss is so hard. Allowing for differences in the way we grieve, the words we use, and where we find comfort is crucial.

We’re all in it together, regardless of how the Rainbow Bridge makes us feel.

How does this post resonate with you? Share your experience in the comments to help fellow pet guardians feel less alone.

08/27/2026

How do you carry your beloved into the world with you?

What would feel most supportive to your pet loss grief today that you can choose to do?Let’s make this the most helpful ...
08/27/2026

What would feel most supportive to your pet loss grief today that you can choose to do?

Let’s make this the most helpful pet grief conversation for grieving guardians all over the world 🧡

Most grieving guardians who choose an earlier date tell me they “should” have waited. Most who wait tell me they “should...
08/26/2026

Most grieving guardians who choose an earlier date tell me they “should” have waited. Most who wait tell me they “should” have gone sooner.

Same guilt, opposite decisions.

Once you know how it ended, the signs line up in an order they never had at the time, and the day starts to look obvious in a way it wasn’t while you were living it.

Your inner critic does its most vicious work in that gap, because it gets to prosecute the decision with information you didn’t have yet and it never enters what you did know that morning, which was a declining body, your vet’s read, medical complexity and uncertainty plus a clock that kept ticking.

Of course you feel guilty. You love your soul pet and you couldn’t change what was happening inside their body.

Euthanasia guilt is one of the most common things guardians bring into a first pet loss grief counseling session with me. My free consult is open if you’re looping on that day. https://honoringouranimals.com/contact/

Earlier or later, which one are you carrying?

08/25/2026

For a lot of us, a soulmate pet is the first place we ever knew or felt love without having to earn it.

No performance, no keeping score. Your beloved didn’t need you thinner or calmer or more “successful.” You walked in and you were already enough: true love with no conditions attached.

That love doesn’t only live in their earthside presence. They showed you what it feels like to be loved all the way and that template stays with you. You can start speaking to yourself the way they always saw you. You can offer yourself the patience and acceptance they offered you without thinking twice. You can receive love from them still, too.

The love they taught you is still teachable. The next person who gets to learn it from you can be you.

What did your beloved teach you about love?

You can describe your soulmate pet to somebody and they’ll picture a cat, and there’s no way to hand over the top of a h...
08/25/2026

You can describe your soulmate pet to somebody and they’ll picture a cat, and there’s no way to hand over the top of a head that smelled like warm bread or the paws that smelled like corn chips or whatever your beloved’s particular version was.

You are the archive. The only copy.

Smell is also the sense that ambushes you hardest in pet loss grief, because it’s wired closest to memory, so a blanket you haven’t washed or the back of a sweater can drop you into a room you thought you were finished crying in.

Most grieving guardians have one item they won’t wash and don’t mention to anyone.

What did your soul pet smell like?

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