Guest blog by Elizabeth Allen
Who are you, what do you do? You say your name, your profession and you can see folks forming mental pictures of how relatable your answer might be in their world. And you feel yourself begin to shrink and expand at the same time and it hurts. Because you want to fit their point of view and yet you can’t help but expand, because you know that you are so much more than the letters after your last name. You are an end-of-life Veterinarian and that changes everything.
When you enter the home for an animal hospice assessment and meet the family, you immediately begin to interpret body language and energy; not just that of the family but of the companion animal. You decipher the visible and the non-visible realm. What’s really happening here; who’s connected to whom and where is this going to take everyone? And you piece it together like an end-of-life jigsaw in a moment measurable only in animal time.
The end is near, you know it, the animal knows it, the family has an inkling, and you feel there should be so many more words to describe love, because nothing feels sufficient. So you reach into your bag and pull out your ClayPaws® Kit and you suggest making a clay paw print together. Zero objections.
Healing with Love
The process is simple and easy. You may stop after making the impression, or you may offer suggestions and space to decorate the print in meaningful ways. It gives a focus to the overwhelming emotions and offers a brief distraction, and a welcome one at that, for everyone to come together, to not follow the downward spiral of their emotions, but to lift, if only for a moment, into a space of creation and to dismantle, bit by bit, the barriers to acceptance of the impending loss of a beloved family member.
And when the clay paw print is baked, it transforms their bond with their pet into a tangible, forever presence in their lives. It requires a tender touch and a permanent home, just like a companion animal. Everything requires love. It is the building blocks of life and the intelligent and compassionate usher for death.
Creation is the Opposite of Death
By helping the family to create something out of love in the face of death, you invite the mourners back, if only for a moment, into a space where both life and death reside. It’s tricky and you know it, but it’s not your first rodeo.
As an end-of-life veterinarian, you get as close as anyone can be to the vibrational frequency of loss for a companion animal. But when you can join with a family who is going through anticipatory grief, or even a family that has just said goodbye to their fur kid, and offer them a ClayPaws print, you opt in to help create something that will last after the pain of departure has gone.
These animals change everything – not only the lives of their family, but of yours, because you helped construct the temporary window through which the animal soul could pass and leave not only paw prints on their hearts, but also help honor the bond and capture the love. And that in any language is completion.
With a deep love of animals and a propensity to gravitate towards the grieving pet parent, Elizabeth has built her life and career on assisting parents with end of life decisions for their companion animals through her work as a grief support advocate, an animal hospice practitioner (Animal Hospice Group), a licensed spiritual practitioner and writer of books about her life with animals. She opened her own mobile veterinary practice, specializing in end-of-life care in 2021 and continues to support pet parents and their families with what she considers the richest part of their relationship.
Learn more about Elizabeth Allen at www.caretakers-acc.com.
