Welcome to episode 327 of Live Happy Now.

Pets bring us an immeasurable amount of joy, but when we lose them, it creates a tremendous

amount of grief.

So this week, as we honor National Dog Day on August 26th and Grief Awareness Day on

August 30th, we're looking at the complicated journey of pet loss.

I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and this week I'm joined by Brittany Darenbacher, who is here to talk to us about how we can work through the stages of grief as it pertains to pet loss and the important role that gratitude plays in helping us heal.

Well, Brittany, welcome to Live Happy Now.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

I'm really excited to have you on this show, and we will say in the interest of full disclosure up front,

I became familiar with you a few years ago through your work with a rescue.

Let's start out by you telling me about your special needs rescue.

And I should not by heart because I actually adopted a dog from you.

But to tell us first about this rescue, because I feel like this really does play into what

we're going to talk about later.

Right.

So our rescue is Luna Bell's Moonbows.

And it started in 2016. My husband and I started it. It is in partnership with a 501c3 rescue in Kentucky called the Boss Interior Rescue of East Tennessee and Kentucky.

And so I was fostering for them for a couple of years and ended up with

a cleft palate puppy. And, you know, I feel like it taught me a lot about, you know, what love and

care that I could give to an animal. And so our relationship with her really kind of solidified

that we wanted to start a special needs rescue.

And she passed away due to other complications that came along with a cleft palate.

...