"Give yourself some grace to feel your pet grief. Feel the anticipatory grief as your dog gets older and you navigate healthcare decisions and end-of-life decisions for your pet. That's grief. You are not silly. You are not weak. You are not being ridiculous. You are not overreacting.”

In this episode of Grief'd Up, host Rebecca Feinglos welcomes listeners into her most unexpected grief journey yet, pet grief. When her dog Ralphie suddenly developed mysterious red spots and a life-threatening blood condition, Rebecca was thrust into a world of emergency vet visits, impossible medical decisions, and emotions that surprised her with their intensity.

Rebecca opens up about the terrifying night she left Ralphie at the animal hospital, not knowing if she'd see him again, and the guilt that comes with every caregiving choice when your pet doesn't understand why they're sick. She shares her shock at how hard the grief hit her - even questioning whether someone who "works in grief all day" should be stronger than this.

From witnessing another family's final goodbye at the emergency vet to becoming a full-time caregiver managing steroids and sleepless nights, Rebecca explores what makes pet grief so unique and heartbreaking. She challenges society's tendency to minimize pet loss as "disenfranchised grief" and argues that we don't need to rank our pain to validate it.

Join Rebecca as she gets honest about anticipatory grief, the intersection of guilt and love in pet caregiving, and why the innocence of our animals makes their suffering so devastating - because as she reminds us, you don't have to grieve alone, no matter what kind of loss you're facing.

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