{"id":15321,"date":"2015-09-13T00:10:11","date_gmt":"2015-09-13T04:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/?p=15321"},"modified":"2015-09-13T09:29:44","modified_gmt":"2015-09-13T13:29:44","slug":"national-pet-memorial-day-a-time-for-tribute-memories-and-mementos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/national-pet-memorial-day-a-time-for-tribute-memories-and-mementos\/","title":{"rendered":"National Pet Memorial Day – A Time for Tribute, Memories, and Mementos"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Memories\"<\/a>

This is the\u00a0armoire in our\u00a0living room – it seemed the perfect image for National Pet Memorial Day, as this is where our beloved Harley, Jazz, Bandit, and Bailey lay in perpetual rest.<\/p><\/div>\n

When I created the first annual Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day<\/a> (RBRD) last month to be held on August 28 of each year as a special day to pay tribute to\u00a0the memories of beloved pets that have passed on, several people pointed out to me that the second Sunday of September is already National Pet Memorial Day (NPMD). I actually did know that when contemplating RBRD, but after much thought and consideration, I still felt that\u00a0although the two days are similar, there was enough difference and need to warrant both,\u00a0so I went ahead with it.<\/p>\n

National Pet Memorial Day was established over 40 years ago by members of the International Association of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories<\/a> as a way for people to honor their pets, both past and present. Similar to RBRD, yes, but since the inception of my blog in 2011, my social presence on Facebook, and publishing\u00a0Purr Prints of the Heart<\/a><\/em> in 2015 after losing Jazz and Harley within a year of each other, I have seen more than enough\u00a0evidence\u00a0to know that people absolutely have a need for the concept of a Rainbow Bridge.<\/p>\n

Whether it actually exists or not isn’t the point, and I certainly can’t prove that it does one way or another. But what I do know, is that most of us have an innate\u00a0need to know our pets are in a better place \u2013 happy, healthy, surrounded by other pets, waiting for us to be by their side one day, because if we don’t have something like that to believe in when it comes to saying goodbye to them, then it\u2019s almost too unbearable to go on. That is what the Rainbow Bridge is to me – that symbolic place that helps to bring peace and comfort to our broken hearts.<\/p>\n

\"deb8\"<\/a>

This was me back in 2010 when I began my foray into writing and blogging. By my side, was my angel Kit, the cat that started it all for me. I’ve come to learn so much about grieving and letting go since then.<\/p><\/div>\n

Life and death itself is far too a complex subject for me to understand and all of us have different beliefs – not everyone believes in the Rainbow Bridge. Some believe in God, Heaven, and Hell and some don’t. Some believe in reincarnation, and some like me, have seen their pets come back to them in spiritual form. I don’t have the answers, but I do believe there is something out there outside of our physical being. The fact\u00a0that we exist is miraculous enough to me. People, earth, galaxies – I can’t even begin to fathom how it all began, seemingly out of thin air, so when we go, are we just gone? But regardless of our beliefs, and questions without answers, for most of us, the Rainbow Bridge is something we gravitate toward and that is why I created a special day.<\/p>\n

I wanted RBRD to be a worldwide, interactive concept where we could share our thoughts, pictures, poems, memories – anything we wanted about our pets that had passed on as a means to\u00a0encourage loving communication, peace, and healing.\u00a0Even though it was called Rainbow Bridge Day, honestly, anyone that lost a pet could have participated, whether they believed in the Rainbow Bridge or not. Simply put, between the blog hop and the Facebook event page, the day was meant to be a wonderfully beautiful, giant, social hug to celebrate the memories of our beloved pets and that’s exactly what it turned out to be.<\/p>\n

National Pet Memorial Day is more of\u00a0a personal day for me to remember my pets and it is also a reminder of just how important rituals and keepsakes are when it comes to dealing with grief, letting go, and memorializing the pet in a special way. For example, burying a pet outside in a spot in the yard with special significance, planting a tree to honor a pet, decorating an urn, writing a love letter to the deceased pet, holding a funeral service, making a scrapbook of memories \u2013 all of these gestures and so many more provide a sense of meaning and it doesn’t matter whether you believe in God, the afterlife, the Rainbow Bridge or anything else for these acts to be important.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Kit<\/a>

This is my precious Kit near the end of her life. She was a cat I rescued off the streets, and although I did not let her outside, that is where she always longed to be. We buried her in the backyard near some bamboo in tribute to her love of the outdoors.<\/p><\/div>\n

I have a drawer filled with mementos that I can’t part with – a worn out collar with a bell that belonged to my sweet cat Scrubby. She was nearly blind and was so tiny that sometimes she was hard to find – with the bell on her collar, it made it much easier to know where she was. The drawer also holds dog tags for Bo, Bailey, Meadow, Hobo, and Bandit, along with Bo’s chain collar. I also kept Bailey’s collar, but hers is worn\u00a0around the neck of a life size Golden Retriever plush dog I have. My ex-husband Bill gave it to me as a way to forever immortalize her, as she was literally my life.<\/p>\n

\"img024\"<\/a>

This was me with Scrubby back in 1981. You will note the collar that she is wearing – I still have it today, tucked away in a drawer. It might only look like a collar to some, but to me, it is my way of feeling connected to her and I would never dream of parting with it.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"GuestRoom\"<\/a>

This is the kitties sharing a nap on the bed in the guest bedroom where I keep my plush Golden Retriever, wearing Bailey’s collar. To this day I can’t believe I lost her to cancer at only two years of age and I still miss her like it was yesterday.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the backyard,\u00a0two of my dogs\u00a0were\u00a0laid to rest \u2013 Meadow and Hobo \u2013 as well as four cats \u2013 Kit, Whitney, Shami, and Tosha . Each of them was buried with a favorite blanket, a love note I had written them, and a special toy. Two of my other dogs, Bandit and Bailey, were cremated and they have a special urn on our TV armoire. Jazz and Harley were also cremated and they have beautiful wooden boxes that I have decorated with special pictures and flowers. We also have Harley\u2019s paw print in plaster and, of course, there is Purr Prints of the Heart<\/em> where all of my sweet babies have been immortalized.<\/p>\n

What about all of you \u2013 if you have lost a pet, did you do something special to memorialize them? Do you believe in the Rainbow Bridge or the afterlife? Have you seen a pet come back to you in spirit form? Please feel free to share \u2013 you are among friends and it\u2019s a nice way to get our feelings out and talk about them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I created the first annual Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day (RBRD) last month to be held on August 28 of each year as a special day to pay tribute to\u00a0the memories of beloved pets that have passed on, several people pointed out to me that the second Sunday of September is already National Pet Memorial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1094],"tags":[1042,1041,671,951,37],"class_list":["post-15321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration-healing","category-purr-prints-of-the-heart","tag-national-pet-memorial-day","tag-pet-grief","tag-pet-loss","tag-purr-prints-of-the-heart","tag-rainbow-bridge"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Memories.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15321"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15346,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15321\/revisions\/15346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}