National Pet Memorial Day!

A day to honor the memory and celebrate the life of a companion who once shared their life with you - today is National Pet Memorial Day.

Every year the second Sunday of September is National Pet Memorial Day, a day set aside to remember our departed companions. Most pet cemeteries across the country observe this day and there are events being held by individuals, humane societies and rescues organizations throughout the country. Check your local pet organizations for an event year you.

The death of your companion can be one of life's most difficult experiences. To help you through, there are so many meaningful ways to memorialize and remember your beloved pet.

One of our best blogging buddies, Oscar, passed recently. Oscar was a very young pup, wide eyed, full of life and adventure. Oscar's Mum and Dad have done beautiful things to remember and celebrate Oscar's life.

They purchased this incredibly simple, elegant and natural stone to put in their planter with lovely flowers for their patio. A great way to remember Oscar. And they have kept up Oscar's blog, creating a wonderful way to remember all the fun and loving times they shared together, and to stay in touch with Oscar's blogging buddies.

Today, we just learned that another one of best buddies, Mira, passed last night from a brain aneurysm, which ruptured and caused a hemorrhage and a stroke, she was only 8 years old.

Mira enjoyed all kinds of noises, both making them (she had a full range of moans and whines) and listening to them, she watched TV, retrieved everything in sight, especially dirty underwear and shoes. And, Mira was quite an accomplished performance dog.

She achieved Companion Dog Excellent title from ASCA, and was awarded High in Trial twice, and most recently became a 2007 ASCA Agility Finals Qualifier. We didn't get to spend much time with Mira because she and her family moved back to Poland just a few weeks after we started to get to know one another. We have stayed in touch and we will miss hearing about her and her antics.

The HSUS has a a listing of ways of honoring the memory of your pet. And there are several sites where you can post an online memorial including: ILovedMyPet.com, and Youns.com.

Also online, there are many websites devoted to pet loss grief. These sites are a nice place to share stories of your pet and work through your sadness, and they have lots of advice on how to cope.

And, of course, there is the Rainbow Bridge, which continues to bring peace and comfort to thousands of animal lovers throughout the World; where one-by-one we will some day be reunited with our loved pups and other pets that have gone before us. Here is a wonderful site that puts the beloved Rainbow Bridge poem to music.

Update: We drafted this post before we found out this morning about Mira. We honor her and all our dear friends who have crossed the Rainbow Bridge today. It's a sad day to remember their passing, but a wonderful day to honor and remember their life! Run free my friends.