Understanding helps heal the hurt when you lose a pet. This award-winning book has been hailed as the seminal work in the field. And now the fourth newly revised and expanded edition offers so much more to the bereaving pet owner. This edition also includes a significant new way of considering the meaning of afterlife for us and our pets. It discusses the topic from a twenty-first century scientific perspective that is very different from existing religious or metaphysical ones, offering a new comfort to skeptics and agnostics as well. This book will help you in your healing from that special loss. It includes topics such as:* Validating this special kind of grief * The grieving process, including typical stages of bereavement and techniques for coping * Children and the death of a pet * Euthanasia, including important emotional considerations * Religion and the death of a pet, with articles by various religious leaders * Aftercare facilities, including an extensive index of pet cemeteries, crematories, and memorial gardens And there is a special chapter at the end, offering helpful hints and suggestions.