13/09/2026
🐾❤️ Pet Memorial Day ❤️🐾
Today is Pet Memorial Day, a day to remember the animals who came into our lives, became part of our families and, eventually, left pawprints on our hearts that never disappear.
This one feels particularly poignant for me.
This week marks a year since we lost our beautiful Beau, and just yesterday we unexpectedly had to say goodbye to our gorgeous Oscar, at the incredible age of 20½. 💔
So today, grief feels very real and very raw in our own home.
Despite my own knowledge and experience of grief counselling, I am reminded this week that knowing about grief doesn’t somehow make you immune to it.
You still have to feel it.
And perhaps that’s one of the most important things I’ve learnt about grief over the years. There is no correct way to do it. There is no timetable and there certainly isn’t a point at which somebody should simply be “over it”.
The loss of an animal can be absolutely devastating.
They are woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. They’re there when we wake up in the morning and when we come home at night. They follow us from room to room, sit beside us when we’re sad, make us laugh, give us routine and companionship and love us without judgement.
And then suddenly, they’re not there.
It’s the empty bed. The unused bowl. The familiar little sounds you automatically listen for. The routines you continue to expect without even realising it.
It’s looking towards their favourite place and, for a split second, expecting to see them there.
That’s grief. And it’s allowed to hurt. ❤️
For children and families particularly, losing a much-loved pet may be one of their first experiences of bereavement. We don’t have to try to make that sadness disappear. Sometimes the most helpful thing we can do is simply allow each other to talk, cry, remember, look at photographs and tell the funny stories.
Say their name.
Talk about them.
Remember the wonderful life they had rather than feeling that you need to pack those memories away because they make you cry.
Because grief and love are so closely connected. We hurt because we loved them so very much.
At PadPaws, we have had the enormous privilege of loving and caring for so many animals over the years. We’ve also shared the heartbreak when some of those familiar faces have crossed the rainbow bridge. They aren’t “just pets” to us, and we know they certainly aren’t just pets to their families.
Today I’ll be remembering every one of them. 🐾
But personally, my heart will be with two particularly precious souls — my beautiful Beau and my beautiful Oscar.
Losing them both in the same week of September, just one year apart, is incredibly difficult to comprehend.
And while right now the tears are coming far more easily than the smiles, I know that eventually the memories that hurt so much today will become the very memories that bring comfort.
Beau and Oscar were here. They were ours. They were loved beyond measure. And they mattered. ❤️
So on Pet Memorial Day, perhaps take a moment to remember the animals who have shared your life.
Say their names.
Smile at the memories.
Shed a tear if it comes.
And above all, never apologise for grieving an animal you loved. They were family. 🐾❤️
For Beau. For Oscar. And for all those beautiful animals who are no longer beside us, but will always remain part of us.
🌈🐾 Forever loved. Forever remembered. 🐾🌈
Paws, claws, whiskers and all, we love your pets big or small. ❤️
