These images are also featured in Koudounaris’s recently released book, ‘Faithful Unto Death.’ As noted by the publisher: “This book reveals both similarities in the way we mourn animal companions and a stunning cultural diversity. From humble Cherry in London to pets of the rich and powerful, this is a history filled with inspiration, wild eccentricity, and eternal love.” More info: Instagram | thamesandhudsonusa.com | Facebook The book’s author reflected on how the experience of losing a pet differs significantly from saying a final goodbye to a human: “When a person dies there are a series of understood gestures, ritualized behaviors, and a standard rhetoric to govern the way we say goodbye and start to seek closure, but that doesn’t exist with pets. Everyone is pretty much on their own, which can make the grief extremely painful, but it also makes the expression of mourning very personal, direct, honest, and earnest. It creates a feeling of intimacy with animal graves. All of that has a lot to do with why I was drawn to research and write about them.” “Of course, some moved me more than others. The story of Nightlife, a dog in New Jersey who ran around with the hip nightclub crowd, and when he died the city effectively shut down for his funeral procession, people really loved this dog, it was a communal mourning. Or Shep, a dog who spent the latter part of his life waiting for his dead owner in a Montana train station. No one even knew the man’s name, it was the dog who remembered someone the rest of humanity had forgotten. But how did I uncover some of these stories? No short cuts, just time and a lot of work. I worked on this for over a decade.” Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! Please use high-res photos without watermarks Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
