S1 Episode 4: Pet Grief

When I was working on show topics I knew I had to devote an episode to pet grief. Pets have become such a big part of our world, our life, our families. We make room in our world for them, take them on trips with us, take their photos and worry about their happiness. So it makes sense that when our pet dies we grieve the loss of a family member. We will talk to pet parents Valerie Nelson and Alex Darian regarding their pet grief. We will also chat with Dr. Andrea Laurent-Simpson, author of “Just Like Family: How companion animals joined the household”.
Valerie Nelson grew up always having animals around. She also helps with pet rescue. Valerie’s beloved cat Oscar recently passed away. She currently resides in the country with her husband, the dogs, cats and cows.
Alex Darian is a Dallas area realtor. She lost her chihuahua Big Daddy in 2015. She has since rescued two more small dogs.
Dr. Andrea Laurent-Simpson is currently a Research Assistant Professor and Lecturer of Sociology at Southern Methodist University. She is the author of Just Like Family: How companion animals joined the household. This book examines pets changing role and relationships in modern US families. Her award-winning work engages identity theory, family and fertility, and human-nonhuman animal interaction. Her research uses original, qualitative research to examine how family membership is impacted by human-nonhuman animal relationships in the United States; how the household structure affects how dogs and cats are identified in the family; how this contributes to post-modern, cultural definitions of who counts as family; and how dropping fertility rates aid in the emergence of a “multi-species” family.

You can find her book, “Just Like Family: How companion animals joined the household”, here.