Cleveland - It is 7:30 on a summer morning in a chapel -like room overlooking the slate - gray, lapping waters of Lake Erie. Ten or se people, some just arriving at work, some finishing a night shift, sit silently in pew - like benches and armchairs below stained - glass windows. A Plump Golden Retriever named Linus, a hospice therapy dog, wanders from one person to another, gratefully accepting their caresses. Dr. Kevin Dieter, a hospice care physician with graying mustache

How to handle grief after a pet’s death—and why we all need to change our attitudes about it Doug’s amateur soccer team had just lost their playoff game and he needed a pick-me-up. So he decided to stop by the local animal shelter on his way home. He was by no means looking to adopt an animal but puppies always put a smile on his face. “Rookie mistake,” he told me in our psychotherapy session. “You set foot in one of these places and no way you’re not leaving with a puppy.” D

On July 24, an orca named Tahlequah (also know as J35) gave birth to a calf that lived for less than an hour. Afterward, Tahlequah carried or pushed her dead calf nearly a thousand miles over 17 days, finally dropping it on Aug. 11, at which point the Center for Whale Research in Wahington state proclaimed that Tahlequah's "tour of grief" was over. Her grief (for what else could it be?) captivated the world. It was so achingly poignant and horrific because it actualized one o