Good Grief: On Loving Pets, Here and Hereafter by E.B. Bartels—now available in paperback!

Loving a pet also means, inevitably, facing the loss of that pet. Yet we lack
codified traditions to help us come to terms with the passing of our pets. Amid the overwhelming grief, how can we best mourn and memorialize the animals who’ve filled our lives with joy?

In Good Grief, E.B. Bartels takes us through history and around the globe in search of the answer. Meeting veterinarians, archaeologists, taxidermists, ministers, and more, she uncovers a surprising, and often inspiring, array of rituals—from the traditional to the grand to the unexpected. We learn there is no single best way to celebrate our dearly departed pets, but in caring for them in death as we did in life, we help ourselves heal while keeping their memories alive.

Punctuated by wry, bighearted accounts of Bartels’s own pets and their passings, Good Grief is a cathartic companion through loving and losing our animal family members.

“Good Grief is just what the doctor ordered—a wonderful, unusual, and healing book, full of wisdom and compassion. Nothing can erase the searing sorrow of losing an animal you love. But this insightful, inspiring, intelligent book will offer real comfort. E.B. Bartels’ extensive and fascinating research reveals deep and transformative truths about the essential process of grieving. Read this book to affirm that love never dies, and you are not alone.”

—Sy Montgomery, New York Times bestselling author of How to Be a Good Creature

“Good Grief is a tender and often funny guide that celebrates the imaginative and far-fetched and entirely ordinary ways we grieve, celebrate, and memorialize—and, yes, sometimes try to preserve—our departed pets. While author E.B. Bartels provides arcane and fascinating details of mummification, cloning, taxidermy, and freeze drying, the heart of Good Grief lies in the profound lessons our animal companions provide—both in life and in death.”

—Cat Warren, author of What the Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the World

“A much-needed hand to hold in the lonesome after. . . .
In Good Grief you’ll find the community that is essential not only
to mourning, but to celebration.”

—T Kira Madden, author of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls

“A moving and kaleidoscopic portrait of the abiding love between humans
and animals—a love that transcends the boundaries of time and culture.”

—Chicago Review of Books

“Offbeat yet heartfelt. . . . Animal lovers shouldn’t pass up
this illuminating and thoroughly charming work.”

—Publishers Weekly