The Hearts & Halos Resource Library
The Hearts & Halos Resource Library was created for pet parents navigating illness, aging, end-of-life decisions, anticipatory grief, childhood grief, and life after goodbye. These free guides and supportive resources are here to help you feel a little less alone, a little more prepared, and gently held through one of the hardest parts of loving an animal.
These resources are not a replacement for veterinary care, emergency care, or mental health support. They are here to help you reflect, prepare, ask informed questions, and find compassionate next steps.
Start Here
You don’t need to know exactly what you need. Choose the place that feels closest to where you are right now.
My pet is aging or sick
Goodbye may be near
My pet has died
I’m supporting a child
Free Pet Grief Resources
When You Need Support Right Now
A Quality of Life Companion for Families
This checklist is a gentle support tool — not a prescription. It helps you notice patterns over time and have more informed conversations with your veterinarian. There is no passing or failing score. You know your pet’s heart better than anyone.
The First 24 Hours After Losing a Pet
This gentle guide was created to help grieving pet owners navigate the first 24 hours after loss with compassion and clarity.
Preparing for Goodbye Checklist
A gentle companion checklist created to support families navigating the difficult days before saying goodbye to a beloved pet.
Childhood Grief Resources
What to Say When a Child’s Pet Has Died
A free childhood grief and pet loss support resource designed to help parents explain death honestly, support grieving children, and create safe, compassionate conversations after losing a beloved dog or cat.
This guide is offered to parents, caregivers, and educators who are walking alongside a grieving child — whether after the loss of a beloved pet or another meaningful relationship. Each child is unique. Use this as a gentle compass, not a rigid map.
A pet grief workbook for kids.
Memorial and Healing Resources
Gentle Memorial Ideas Guide
A compassionate companion guide created to help grieving families explore meaningful ways to honor and remember a beloved pet. Created with a grief-aware perspective.
Love Lives On: A Guided Pet Grief Journal & Memory Workbook
A gentle, guided workbook created to help grieving pet owners reflect on cherished memories, process difficult emotions, and honour the bond they shared with a beloved companion. Through thoughtful journal prompts, memory-keeping activities, reflection exercises, and letter-writing pages, this workbook provides a safe space to remember, celebrate, and carry forward the love that remains after loss. Designed from a grief-aware perspective, it encourages healing through storytelling, gratitude, and connection—one memory at a time.
This guide explores the many emotions that can accompany pet loss and offers gentle reassurance that there is no “right” way to grieve. Created from a grief-aware perspective, it helps normalize common experiences, reduce self-judgment, and remind grieving pet owners that whatever they are feeling, they are not alone.
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
Practical/Veterinary-Informed Resources
Helping Other Pets Grieve
A gentle guide for families navigating the loss of a pet while caring for the animals who remain. Learn about common behavioral changes such as appetite changes, searching behaviours, increased vocalization, clinginess, and withdrawal, along with practical ways to provide support during times of transition. Written from a grief-aware and veterinary-informed perspective, this resource offers compassionate guidance while encouraging pet owners to monitor their pet’s well-being and seek veterinary advice when needed.
Coming Soon
A practical, veterinary-informed resource designed to help families identify simple ways to improve their pet’s quality of life at home. Covering mobility, traction, hydration, orthopedic bedding, ramps, warmth, scent accessibility, and low-stress routines, this printable guide offers thoughtful suggestions to help aging pets stay comfortable, safe, and supported. Whether your companion is beginning to slow down or facing age-related challenges, this checklist can help you create an environment that promotes comfort, confidence, and connection during their golden years.
Questions to Ask Your Veterinarian During End-of-Life Care
This thoughtful guide provides a collection of important questions to discuss with your veterinarian about quality of life, pain management, treatment options, hospice care, euthanasia, aftercare, and what to expect in the days ahead. Created from grief-aware and veterinary-informed perspective, it is designed to help pet owners feel more prepared, informed, and supported during one of the most difficult chapters of loving a pet.
When You Want More Than a Resource
Some goodbyes are too tender to rush.
Hearts & Halos legacy sessions are gentle, grief-aware photography sessions for pets who are aging, seriously ill, nearing end of life, or deeply loved in a way you never want to forget. Sessions are slow, flexible, and centred around your pet’s comfort.
You do not need perfect behaviour.
You do not need perfect weather.
You do not need to have everything together.
Just love. That is enough.
Supports
Canadian and U.S. Grief Supports – peer support, community links, and resources
Book Now Available
Your Love Lives in Me – A gentle, heartfelt story to help children understand the loss of a beloved pet. For 3 to 6-year-olds.
Heads and Tails Photography Blog
The Empty Spaces Pet Loss Leaves Behind
You come home with groceries and open the door carefully, leaving room for the dog who always tried to get their nose into the bags. Then you remember you can open it all the way. After a pet dies, an ordinary task can bring their absence into focus. You might…
But My Dog Is a Complete Maniac: Why That’s Not a Problem for Pet Photos
I hear a version of this before almost every session. “You don’t understand. My dog is a complete maniac.” This is usually followed by a list of supporting evidence. The dog won’t sit. They pull on the leash. They treat recall as a suggestion and become suddenly deaf…
5 Reasons August Is One of the Best Months for Pet Photography in Nova Scotia
August offers long evenings, varied outdoor locations and plenty of ways to build a Nova Scotia pet photography session around the activities your animal genuinely enjoys.
When Pet Loss Brings Guilt, Anger, Shock, and Impossible Decisions
You may have expected to miss your pet. You may not have expected to feel furious with the veterinary clinic, guilty about a decision you made, or unable to accept that the death actually happened. Pet-loss grief is not always recognizable as sadness. It can sound…
My Personal Pet Loss Story
My Personal Pet Loss Story By Jennifer Dooley | Hearts & Halos by Heads and Tails Photography | July 27, 2026 Not every pet loss is gentle, and not every goodbye is peaceful. Sometimes grief comes with shock, guilt, anger, helplessness, resentment, relief, or…
The Photos You’ll Be Glad You Took of Your Senior Pet
When to Book a Professional Senior Pet Photography Session Phone photos matter deeply. Take them often. But a professional senior pet photography or legacy pet photography session can give you something different: photographs of the bond, the details, the family, and…
Why You Don’t Have to Wait Until the Very End for Legacy Photos
Legacy Pet Photography in Nova Scotia for the Love That’s Still Here There’s a sentence I hear often from pet parents: “I think it might be too soon.” Too soon for legacy photos. Too soon for an end-of-life pet photography session. Too soon to say the quiet thing out…
The Quiet Signs Your Pet’s Story Is Changing
The Quiet Signs Your Pet’s Story Is Changing There’s a strange kind of awareness that comes with loving an aging or medically fragile pet. You start noticing things other people might miss. A slightly different sound in their voice. A shorter walk. A hesitation before…
How to Prepare for an End-of-Life Pet Photography Session — and What to Expect During One
How to Prepare for an End-of-Life Pet Photography Session When your pet is nearing the end of their life, time can start to feel strange. The days may feel heavier. Decisions may feel harder. You may notice tiny things you don’t ever want to forget, like the way their…
Why Guilt Is So Common After Pet Loss
Why Guilt Is So Common After Pet Loss Losing a pet isn’t “just losing an animal.” For many people, it’s losing a daily companion, a routine, a quiet witness, and a relationship built on trust. They’re woven into the ordinary parts of our days: the food bowl at…
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Hearts & Halos Resource Library?
The Hearts & Halos Resource Library is a collection of free pet grief resources, checklists, guides, and supportive articles for families navigating pet illness, end-of-life care, childhood grief, memorial planning, and life after pet loss.
Where should I start if my pet is sick or aging?
Start with the Senior Pet Comfort Checklist, A Quality of Life Companion for Families, and Questions to Ask Your Veterinarian During End-of-Life Care.
Where should I start if my pet has just died?
Start with What to Do in the First 24 Hours After Losing a Pet, You Are Not Grieving Wrong, and the Canadian and US grief supports page.
Are these resources only for dogs?
No. These resources can support families grieving dogs, cats, horses, birds, rabbits, reptiles, pocket pets, and other beloved companion animals.
Can these resources replace veterinary advice?
No. These resources are for emotional support, reflection, and preparation. Medical questions and end-of-life decisions should always be discussed with a veterinarian who knows your pet’s health history.