Cherished: 21 Writers on Animals They Have Loved and Lost

What do our beloved pets teach us and how do we move beyond loss to embrace and celebrate their memory? In Cherished: 21 Writers Celebrate Animals They’ve Loved and Lost, writers put into words the depth of grief felt after their animals’ deaths, the lessons learned from their lives, how these animals changed them, and the joy they left behind. These remarkable stories go far beyond conveying the heartbreaking loss that pet owners experience when their pet dies. With rare literary texture and insight, they convey how pets fit into the messiness of life and how life changes because of them. Each essay speaks to larger truths and insights about life itself. Our pets help us deal with the continual litany of changes that life dishes out. They see us through family deaths, career changes, divorces, financial ups and downs. But when they inevitably pass away, who can we turn to for solace except those with whom we share this common experience.

Cherished features remarkable writers and remarkable stories, three-quarters of them original to this collection. Novelist Samantha Dunn describes her driven cowgirl mother who finds ingenious ways for her daughter to keep Gabe, their pure white gelding, while living at lot #78 of the Enchanted Hills Mobile Home Park. Anne Lamott describes the powerful moment of community that forms as she and her son face the passing of their dog, Sadie. Memoirist May-lee Chai writes about growing up on a South Dakota farm and grappling with the inevitabilities of farm life as she becomes attached to the three pigs she reluctantly cares for. And with beautiful, cutting detail, poet Mark Doty describes the last days of his dog, Arden.