Those of us who are lucky enough to have animal companions know one tragic truth: With the exception of a few parrots, we will outlive our pets. And with each passing, our hearts break. In THE BOOK OF PET LOVE AND LOSS, Sara Bader manages to reassure us that we are not alone in our grief. Our sadness, heartbreak and sense of loss is normal and equivalent to what is experienced by others, including the notable individuals who appear in these pages.

The book is small, but it’s mighty. We love our pets, in part because they love us unconditionally. And that resonates in every quote found here. I'm not going to give away many of them, but John Steinbeck's might be my favorite: "I don't know whether I told you. My setter pup, left alone one night, made confetti of about half of my manuscript. Two months work to do over again. It sets me back. There was no other draft. I was pretty mad but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically." I couldn't blame my new rescue dog, Lexi, who chewed my Birkenstocks. After all, I left them out and gave her access to them.

"Reading this book is like having a crowd of sympathetic friends hugging you and supporting you in your sorrow. It's letting you know that you are not the only one with these feelings of heartache."

Authors, philanthropists, politicians, celebrities, musicians, journalists and many others make their voices heard here. There are also photographs and pages of information about some well-known figures and their pets. From Serena Williams to Jane Goodall, Helen Keller to Emily Dickinson, Zora Neale Hurston to Billie Holiday, these quotes will leave many in tears. But the tears are comforting, because reading these words about the sorrow we endure after the death of our beloved companions makes our grief something that is shared. All of us who have mourned for an animal have this in common --- a heart that has been lucky enough to have loved and been loved completely and truly.

In fact, I asked Sara how she felt reading these quotes and if they made her as sad as I was: "I found the quotes so affirming --- the sentiments normalized how I was feeling --- so for me, that eclipsed the sadness of reading them. The research was meditative, too, searching for words that helped describe what I was going through. That process brought me solace, too."

The tears you might experience contemplating your deceased pet, or thinking about the imminent passing of a senior animal, have a purpose, according to Sara: "I tried to create a book that is life-affirming and liberating, a collection that will help readers access feelings that might otherwise be buried and hard to reach. Anne Lamott has described grief this way: '[G]rief and tears didn’t wash me away. They gave me my life back! They cleansed me, baptized me, hydrated the earth at my feet. They brought me home…' If tears come when reading the collection, I hope they cleanse and hydrate and help readers move through their grief and realize that they are in very good company."

THE BOOK OF PET LOVE AND LOSS will bring comfort, whether your last beloved companion died long ago when you were a child, or if, like me, you are nursing a sick 17-year-old cat through kidney disease and high blood pressure, giving sub-Q fluids and administering medication throughout the day, thinking about when the end will come. If you've lost many friends throughout the years, or are worrying about parting with your first one, this collection will help. Somehow, hearing from people we know and often respect regarding their bereavement is comforting.

Reading this book is like having a crowd of sympathetic friends hugging you and supporting you in your sorrow. It's letting you know that you are not the only one with these feelings of heartache. There are a multitude of others who share your anguish. Do not be afraid to mourn. You are not alone.