Rainbow Reach Shop Pet Loss

When a child suffers the loss of a beloved pet, adults often feel powerless to help them heal – especially when the adults themselves are grieving. Sometimes, children are not able to grieve because they don’t know how to express their feelings, worries and questions about what has happened to their pet. When this happens, they can begin acting out days, even months following the death. Repressed feelings can show up later in life as emotional problems, poor self-esteem and issues stemming from the child’s loss of trust, security and safety.

Forever Friend is a beautifully designed and produced activity book that offers a loving, creative and healthy way for kids 4-14 to cope with the loss of a pet. Through carefully structured activities like gathering photos, drawing pictures, planning a memorial service and even writing a special song for the pet, author Susan Weaver (a Certified GriefRecovery Specialist) gently walks children and “tweens” through what is often their first experience with death and loss.

Page by page, as children work through their grief, they also create a beautiful keepsake scrapbook that forever captures the happy times they shared with their special pet. These fun but seriously effective activities prepare children to say good-bye in a positive way. Plus, the active “doing” opens up conversations that give adults the insights necessary to help the healing begin.