Pet Loss & Bereavement Guide

A simple, gentle guide to Pet Loss & Bereavement
for grieving Animal Lovers

Pet loss and the subsequent bereavement experienced by animal lovers is a subject which hooked my heart strings back in 1997 when I first found out that pet bereavement counselling was actually a thing. 

Since then I've taught clients how to cope with losing animal friends during workshops, on impromptu calls, at Saturday braais and over email.

Helping people through pet loss has become a passion of mine, born out of my own loss and grief, when at times I felt alone and misunderstood whilst traveling that journey.

When you're an empath and as sensitive to the emotions of others as I am, it can be hard seeing people struggle and grieve without resources. In my case I feel it – all their grief and anguish, and of course I'm familiar with the sense of loss that comes from losing an animal you've loved.

I found it frustrating that there are almost no resources available for grieving animal lovers. It's clear to me too, that people don't even realise that they should have help and support through such a tough time.

Hence the creation of my Pet Loss and Bereavement booklet. Its packed with info on recognising what you're feeling and why; as well as what you can expect to feel while grieving.

My Pet Loss and Bereavement booklet helps you to:

Understand what you're feeling at a glance with the 7 stages of grief.

... move through your grief and feel supported at the same time.

Create a heartfelt memorial ceremony.

Sit with difficult topics like guilt and depression
and how you might reach a place of acceptance.

Animal lover's reviews

Colleen Mulrooney’s ‘Guide to Pet Love & Bereavement’ is a kind, gentle and useful resource to help animal lovers, young and old, to garner some understanding of the emotional process of losing an animal companion. At a glance you can quickly understand that you’re not alone in the various stages that is saying goodbye. The helpful hints were, for me, the most profound because they gave me practical tips that I could immediately implement. Thank you Colleen for making this sad and often traumatic experience just that little easier to navigate.

Alex Parry

I received my “Guide to Pet Loss & Bereavement” by Colleen Mulrooney and couldn’t wait to read it. It is small and easy to read and the tips are spot on! Even though the loss of one of our fur babies was just over a year ago, by reading this booklet I can remember all the emotions like it was yesterday. Especially the guilt part. What I love about this booklet is that Colleen is talking from experience and that you realise that you aren’t alone in feeling what you feel.  

Thank you Colleen with sharing this with the world and helping animal lovers everywhere, to cope with the loss of their animal companion. This booklet also makes the perfect gift in times of loss, 

especially if you don’t have words to express your sympathy.

Nolia Meyer

Colleen Mulrooney’s ‘Guide to Pet Love & Bereavement’ is an easy to read booklet to help you deal with a difficult event in your life. Somehow it seems “acceptable” to grieve over the loss of a human family member or friend, but animals, who love us so unconditionally are often relegated to “second place” and we are often seen as “crazy” for mourning the loss of a beloved animal companion as much as we would a human companion. 

Colleen’s booklet tells us that it is normal to feel that way, and gives an easy to follow guide that steps you through the process that we all go through at this time. The booklet is easy to read and has short sections and helps tremendously at a time like this in life, as it often is the exact time when we are struggling to focus and concentrate. 

Thank you for making it “ok” to feel this! Even though it has been many years since I have had a pet cross the Rainbow Bridge, this booklet has helped me to understand what I felt so many years ago! 

Now I can have a ceremony to honour those pets I have lost.

Coral Bell

 When I first read Colleen Mulrooney’s Guide to Pet Loss & Bereavement my first thought was, ‘Oh thank goodness, I’m not crazy’. Because, five years ago when I lost my boxer Karma, my soulmate for 12 years, I didn’t want to go out, I didn’t want to see people, and I didn’t want to talk to anybody. And many people didn’t understand that. 

People who had never had the privilege of sharing a bond with an animal like I had had with Karma simply couldn’t grasp the magnitude of her death to me. But Colleen Mulrooney’s Guide to Pet Loss & Bereavement helped me see those feelings were completely normal and part of the natural grieving process.  I just know if I had had this book then to help me through that process, it would have been that little bit easier.

Bronwyn Bean