Recently in pet loss Category

Every so often my colleague Stephanie Walton, who does the "Ask Us" feature for the Daily Breeze, get a question about pet bereavement groups.

I'm not aware of any groups that meet in the South Bay around this concern (if anyone knows of group meetings, send us the information and we can post it). But there are some online sites that can provide solace for owners who are missing their best friends.

This story by the Associated Press on the Daily Breeze website highlights a few of them such as Doggy Heaven and Immortal Pets. 

(AP Photo/Amy Sancet)

From the story:

The (online) obituaries -- accompanied by photo montages, poems, and notes of condolence from friends and fellow pet owners -- are a part therapy and part memorial, a way to grieve and a way to immortalize. ...

"It's a reflection of the social fabrice, says Samantha Gowen, who writes the Orange County Register's Pet Tales blog which regularly includes obituaries sent in by readers.

..... Online obituaries offer pet owners a way to tap into that network, find support and channel the pain of losing a pet.

Doggy Heaven began about two years ago and now has a database of more than 1,200 dog obituaries. The site is free and allows owners to post photos and information, with an option also for visitors to add messages.

Immortal Pets has about 2,000 pet obituaries for dogs, cats, birds and even rats. There is a section for free obituaries.

I've noticed that Facebook provides another outlet. And here at South Bay Pets we're always glad to take submissions from readers who would like to tell the world about their special pet.

The Daily Breeze also has memorial ads (Daily Breeze/Pet Memories) you can purchase (prices range from $49 to $97, depending on the size) that will be published in the paper as well as online at South Bay Pet Talk. Contact Christina Haidet at 310-540-5511, Ext. 6399 or e-mail her at christina.haidet@dailybreeze.com.

 

Get the Kleenex out before you read this. You'll need it.

Here's the story of Hudson whose family made up a "bucket list" when they found out the dog had only about a month to live after being diagnosed with cancer.

Hudson, a 10-year-old chocolate lab, enjoying one of the items on his bucket list - riding in the car with his head out the window. That's not something the big dog was normally allowed to do.

The ever-calm and cool Daddy and his owner, famed Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan, gave many of us a different view of pit bulls. 

He lived each day of those 16 years happy and fulfilled as Cesar's right-hand-"man," helping to shape the behavior of entire generations of dogs by showing them the way to balance. He stood as champion for calm-submissive pit bulls everywhere, and was instrumental in helping to repair their image as violent, savage, uncontrollable beasts. He successfully battled cancer and weathered chemotherapy, and even got the opportunity to present at the 56th Annaul Create Arts Emmy Awards.

Our sympathies and condolences to Justin Rudd, whose beloved English bulldog Rosie died Sunday of old age (she was 12). 

Anyone who knows Justin Rudd - and who in Belmont Shore doesn't? - knew his "girl," Rosie the bulldog.

The community activist pulled his brindle-coated friend in a red Radio Flyer wagon to his myriad animal-related events - dog costume parades, pet blessings and bulldog beauty contests among them.

Rudd and Rosie were a familiar sight on Second Street, as well as the avenues that bisect it, and passers-by would often stop and ask to meet the English bulldog they knew from newspapers and TV. Standing on four short legs, Rosie would crane her turtle-like neck to solicit pats and give sloppy kisses that were like running your face through a car wash.

Rosie died Sunday morning of old age. She was 12, a couple of years beyond the typical life expectancy for her breed, but not old enough for Long Beach's best-known animal advocate.

"I've never cried as much over anything," Rudd, 40, said a few hours before Rosie was cremated Monday in Huntington Beach.

Rudd sounded deeply bereft, his normally cheerful Southern drawl turned flat by a cold and by grief. Rosie was not only the wrinkled mascot for his nonprofit Community Action Team, and all of the charitable work it does, but his closest animal companion.

"She was the inspiration for it all," Rudd said, citing the dog beach he won city approval for at the foot of Granada Avenue as one example of how Rosie influenced his activism.

Pepsi, a funny, short-legged dog, has been a mainstay at the San Pedro Dog Park almost since it opened.

Sadly, her owners lost her on Saturday, just two days after she seemed to take ill and was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer. She was 9. Her owners adopted her in 2003 from Purrfect Pet Rescue. They are absolutely heartbroken. Pepsi was their first dog.

Owner Rosie and her daughter, Nirvana, now 11, faithfully walked Pepsi daily and every weekend brought her to the dog park where we all enjoyed her "Pepsi-kin" antics -- like her owners playing "hide-n-seek" with her and how Pepsi especially liked to groom a little dog named Daizy, like a mom with her baby.

Oh, and about the name: Her rescue foster owner had named her Betsy (because of her black-and-white cow-like spots). But Nirvana couldn't pronounce "Betsy," it kept coming out "Pepsi." And so she was (uniquely) named. 

 

From Rosie: 

"The first time I saw her picture on their website I already wanted to see her. She was under the care of her foster mom, Jane Hendrikson in Whittier. Pepsi was found wandering the street in Whittier. It took Jane about a month to catch her. She would hang around the police station and the library (where Jane was the librarian) ... It took about a month to catch her.

Jane mentioned that it looked like Pepsi just had puppies, but she couldn't find any. We knew she belonged to somebody before because she was potty trained already. She didn't know how to play ball or play catch at all. ...I fell in love with her instantly.

(More memories and pictures on the jump)

On Thursday, Redondo Shores Veterinary Center's is hosting a Pet Celebration of Life, a gathering to remember family pet members that have passed away.

Attendees are encouraged to bring an electric candle and/or a special memento.

The event will be held at  Veterans Park, 301 The Esplanade, Redondo Beach at 5:30 p.m.

For more information, call Christina at 310-540-5588.

All of us who have lost a pet can relate to this touching tribute to Puff the dog written by Los Angeles Times columnist Sandy Banks.

Although we didn't really know each other, Sandy and I briefly overlapped as reporters covering LAUSD some time ago for our respective newspapers. And I'd also lost a dog last year to diabetes (following 15 months of twice-daily insulin shots), So I guess I felt a personal connection to Puff's story:

My friends remind me of the toll his care took on me. His illness was a ball and chain, and I was never sure if he was really happy. ... But that doesn't diminish the pain -- the hurt that keeps ambushing me.

I couldn't actually read it the first time I spotted it on the site of our cross-town bloggers, LA Unleashed. Sad dog stories just get to me. (Like the time I utterly embarrassed a friend of mine a few years ago when I began sniffling audibly through the last 15 minutes of "My Dog Skip" -- "What is wrong with you??" she said as the lights came up, making sure to walk a bit ahead of me as we left the theater).

But later, I went back to read Sandy's column and was struck by Puff's story, and how blessed he was to have such a loving family who took such good care of him.

And besides, is that just about the cutest dog you've ever seen? We just had to post his picture.  

Our heartfelt condolences to Sandy and her family.

(To see a picture of my dog Pilgrim, bravely enduring his most humiliating moment EVER in life when I forced him to pose for an in-house Christmas ad at the Daily Breeze one year, see the jump.)