Pet Loss Counseling for Kids: Remembering Your Pet

"Mom: It's important to find ways to remember your pet, whether it be a cat, a dog, a chinchilla, a horse. Most of the time between your family and other people that have been in your life, they have a lot of different memories about that animal. So what we did for one of our dogs, Calvin, that died a few years ago, is we made something called a memory jar. And basically what the memory jar was is for people, family, friends, people that came over to visit and us ourselves as well, we could write down some of our favorite memories of Calvin, funny things that we remembered and stories that we shared and Bailey has one right there. Do you want to read the one you have, Bailey? Bailey: When he would chase and play with a balloon. Mom: So Calvin liked to play with balloons. And we have a couple of other ones down in here. Calvin always liked to lay right in the middle of the floor so everyone had to step over him. And Calvin's first trip to the desert, Sedona, Arizona, he had cactus barbs all over him. So sometimes it's just fun to get out the jar, to share some of these memories. And it's especially good for some of the kids that were younger or maybe not even born yet when that pet passed away. And this helps them to keep their memory alive and I also found that it was fun because other people had memories that I didn't have or things that I had forgotten about. So we still add to this from time to time."