The Hearts & Halos Resource Library
By Heads and Tails Photography
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.
What to Do in 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
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.
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.
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.
Hearts and Halos Blog
What to Do With Your Pet’s Belongings After They Die
When a beloved pet dies, the house changes in ways that are hard to explain. The bed in the corner is suddenly empty. The leash by the door feels impossibly heavy. The food bowls, toys, blankets, medication bottles, brushes, sweaters, carriers, collars, and little…
The Benefits of Legacy Photography for Healing, Memories, and Conversation Starters
When we love a pet deeply, we don’t only love their face. We love the way they followed us from room to room. The sound of their paws on the floor. The soft sigh they made when they settled beside us. The crooked ear. The greying muzzle. The way they looked at…
Anticipatory Grief When a Pet Is Sick: Loving Them Through the Before
When a beloved pet becomes seriously ill, grief often begins long before the final goodbye. You may still be filling their bowl, helping them outside, giving medication, arranging vet visits, or curling up beside them on the couch — and yet part of you may already…
Why Pet Loss Hurts so Deeply
Losing a pet can feel impossible to explain to someone who has never had that kind of bond. It is not “just a dog,” “just a cat,” “just a bird,” “just a horse,” or “just a pet.” For many people, the animal they lose was a daily companion, emotional anchor, family…
How to Know When It Might Be Time to Say Goodbye
A gentle guide to anticipatory grief, quality of life, and making the kindest decision for your pet There is no easy way to ask the question: “Is it time?” For many pet families, the end-of-life decision is not one clear moment. It is a slow, heartbreaking collection…
Why End of Life Photography is Important to Me: Chapter 4 – Maia
Maia was my biggest heartbreak. We got Maia in 2008 as a “free to a good home” puppy. She was 9 months old, and her life had already been turned upside down. Her owners had divorced, and she ended up spending 12 to 14 hours a day locked in an outdoor run. Tiernan was…
Why End of Life Photography is Important to Me: Chapter 2 – Tiernan
In 2008, we welcomed our first Great Dane puppy — Tiernan. We were inexperienced and excited, and in our eagerness, we purchased him from a backyard breeder. We paid for that decision dearly. Before we even brought him home, he had already been diagnosed with…
Why End of Life Photography Matters to Me: Chapter 3 – Julius
About five months after losing Tiernan, in the spring of 2012, a Great Dane became available through a rescue centre. He was a senior, found as a stray, and terribly thin. He was such a sweet boy, and he bonded with us quickly. He adored me and would wait by the door…
Why End of Life Photography is Important to Me: Chapter 1 – Callie
I have loved many animals in my life, and because of that, I have also lost many. That is the bargain, I suppose. Love asks for everything, and in the end it keeps the memory. In 2004, a friend’s younger sister found a litter of stray kittens. She brought one home,…
What to Say When a Child’s Pet Has Died
Losing a beloved pet is often a child’s first experience with death. For many children, that relationship is not “just” companionship — it is safety, routine, comfort, unconditional love, and emotional grounding. A dog sleeping beside them every night, a cat waiting…
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.