Four books.
One incredible journey.
The Pet Chaplain Learning Series
Built on scholarship. Written from the heart.
The award-winning Pet Chaplain Learning Series is the backbone of everything we do. Drawing on more than two decades of pet loss support, community and veterinary chaplaincy, and interdisciplinary scholarship, the four volumes form the educational foundation for our spiritual care resources.
The series was created to engage your mind and your heart. The books move from stories of extraordinary “heart animals” into an exploration of love, loss, and the profound ways our animals shape our lives. We then widen our perspective to consider the social, cultural, spiritual, and historical forces that shape our relationships with animals. With the final volume, we turn this new learning toward the art of spiritual caregiving for pet loss.
Wherever you begin, each book offers a different way of understanding the animals who share our lives—and what those relationships can teach us about love, loss, meaning, and mutual support.
Recognized for Excellence
Winner of a bronze medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), the four-volume Pet Chaplain Learning Series explores the human–animal bond through storytelling, grief, culture, spirituality, and compassionate care.
How to navigate the Learning Series
Each of the four books in the Pet Chaplain Learning Series stands alone, so you can choose the volumes that peak your interest. Scroll down to read detailed descriptions of each book.
For the richest learning experience, we recommend engaging with the books progressively. We’ve developed two learning paths to suit people with different needs and learning goals.
The first is the Pet Lovers Path, which is for anyone who loves animals. The second is the Caregivers Path, which is for people interested in providing spiritual support to pet keepers in their workplace and their community.
The Pet Lovers Path: Books 1–3
The first three books in the Pet Chaplain Learning Series invite anyone who has ever loved and lost an animal to explore the human–animal bond through personal reflection, storytelling, and new perspectives on love, loss, and spirituality. Beginning with stories of animals who change our lives, the journey moves through the human-animal bond, grief and continuing bonds, to the cultural, religious, and scientific ideas that shape our understanding of animals.
Throughout these books, the Sacred Story Project invites you to write about the animals who’ve shaped your life. Introduced in Heart Animals and continuing through Always in My Heart and Just an Animal, this progressive writing exercise uses a simple three-part framework to help you reflect on your experiences with animals and discover their deeper meaning.
These books also include thought-provoking discussion questions that encourage critical reflection and meaningful conversation. This makes the first three books in the Learning Series well suited for book study groups, and we encourage you to invite friends, family, coworkers, fellow congregants, or others in your community to share the journey.
The Caregivers Path: Books 1–4
If you’re interested in learning how to support people who have lost a beloved pet, we recommend reading all four books in the Learning Series. The first three books will help you build your self-awareness around animal-related issues while deepening your understanding of pet keeping and loss. Veterinary Chaplaincy, the fourth book in the Learning Series, builds on that foundation with practical guidance for inclusive spiritual care.
A pioneering book in this emerging field of spiritual care, Veterinary Chaplaincy introduces six foundational competencies, including a deep understanding of human spirituality and meaning-making; grief; best practices for spiritual care and basic interpersonal skills; domain-specific knowledge of pet keeping and loss and guidelines for responding to pet keepers’ common concerns; organizational and networking skills; and self-awareness and self-care.
Written for a broad audience, Veterinary Chaplaincy is suitable for professional caregivers, animal welfare workers, community volunteers, and anyone who wants to offer spiritual support to people grieving an animal companion.
VOLUME 1
Heart Animals
Sacred Stories About Pets Who Change Our Lives
Have you ever loved an animal who changed your life? Perhaps that animal taught you something about love, loyalty, compassion, or even yourself. The animals who share our lives often shape who we become, leaving us with stories that reveal what matters most to us.
Where to buy the book
Amazon (paperback or ebook formats)
Lulu: Paperback or ebook
Lulu supports independent authors
The stories we carry
Heart Animals brings together ten intimate stories of pet keeping and loss from aspiring veterinary professionals whose relationships with special pets helped inspire their chosen paths. These are more than stories about beloved pets. They are sacred stories—personal narratives that reveal who we are, what we value, and how our relationships with animals give meaning to our lives.
For pet lovers, these stories offer a glimpse into the experiences that inspire people to devote their lives to animal care. For veterinary professionals and others who work or volunteer with animals, they offer an opportunity to reflect on the relationships that drew them to this work.
Above all, Heart Animals invites you to remember the animals who have shaped your own life—and to consider the stories you carry because of them.
VOLUME 2
Always in My Heart
Coping Creatively With Pet Loss
Losing an animal companion can be one of life’s most painful experiences. The grief that follows can be profound and difficult for others to understand. Always in My Heart offers a compassionate exploration of pet loss and the many ways we can find comfort, meaning, and renewed purpose, while discovering creative ways to honor the animals we love.
Where to buy the book
Amazon (paperback or ebooks formats)
Lulu: Paperback or ebook
Lulu supports independent authors
Grief, healing, and the love that endures
Most books about pet loss focus on the challenges of grief that we often face just before or immediately after a loss. Always in My Heart addresses these short-term challenges, but it also takes the long view of grief—exploring the emotional and spiritual journey that can continue for months, years, and even a lifetime after saying goodbye to a beloved pet.
Through a unique combination of scholarship and personal narrative, the book explores four interconnected themes:
- Understanding the experience of pet loss. Explore the complex and powerful emotions that often accompany grief, including sorrow, guilt, anger, and regret, and the challenges of living in a society that doesn’t always recognize the depth of our bonds with animals.
- Finding creative ways to cope. Discover reflective exercises and meaningful activities that can help you express your grief, honor your animal’s memory, and find comfort in the experiences you shared.
- Discovering meaning in loss. Reflect on the lessons your animals have taught you and consider how those lessons continue to shape your values, choices, and relationships.
- Living with enduring love. Explore how the human–animal bond continues beyond physical separation and how the love you carry for a pet can remain a positive, life-affirming presence in your life.
Whether you’re anticipating the loss of an animal companion, grieving a recent death, or remembering an animal who died many years ago, Always in My Heart offers companionship and new perspectives for your personal journey through grief.
VOLUME 3
Just an Animal
Reflections on the Human-Animal Bond
and Western Culture
Showcased by Psychology Today as an essential read!
If you’ve ever grieved the loss of a beloved pet, you may have heard someone say, “Why are you so upset? It’s just an animal.” Such comments reflect a troubling contradiction in Western culture: while millions of people cherish their animals as family members, longstanding cultural beliefs and social institutions continue to treat animals as lesser beings whose lives—and deaths—matter less than others.
Where to buy the book
Amazon (paperback or ebook formats)
Lulu: Paperback or ebook
Lulu supports independent authors
Challenging the “just an animal” perspective
Why does Western society celebrate the human–animal bond while often dismissing the grief people experience when an animal dies? And where did the belief that humans are fundamentally superior to other animals originate?
Just an Animal explores these questions through the lenses of philosophy, history, religion and spirituality, psychology, sociology, and animal science. Tracing centuries of Western thought, the book examines how deeply rooted assumptions about human superiority continue to influence the lives of our animals and our lives as well—and how these assumptions are increasingly being challenged.
Through an interdisciplinary exploration, you’ll discover:
- The historical roots of human exceptionalism. Explore how influential philosophical traditions, from Aristotle’s hierarchy of living beings to Descartes’ mechanistic view of animals, helped establish the belief that humans are entitled to a uniquely privileged place in the natural world.
- The continuing consequences of anthropocentrism. Consider how deeply rooted assumptions about human superiority adversely affect animals and the people who love them—from laws that continue to treat animals as property to social and religious attitudes that diminish the significance of the human–animal bond and disenfranchise those grieving the loss of a beloved pet.
- Changing religious and spiritual perspectives. Explore how Christianity has historically reinforced human-centered views of the natural world, and how evolving theological and spiritual perspectives are challenging this mindset, affirming the value of animal lives, and recognizing the spiritual significance of our relationships with them.
- What science is revealing about animals. Discover how advances in our understanding of animal cognition and behavior are transforming our understanding of animal intelligence, emotions, consciousness, and the complex relationships animals form with humans and one another.
- Pet keepers are changing the narrative. Examine how the growing recognition of pets as family members—and the voices and experiences of the people who love them—are challenging longstanding cultural assumptions and reshaping society’s understanding of animals and the human–animal bond.
For anyone who has struggled to find understanding after losing a cherished pet, Just an Animal offers a broad perspective on why pet loss is so often minimized. It affirms that profound grief is a natural response to the loss of a meaningful relationship—and invites readers to question the cultural assumptions that have long suggested otherwise.
VOLUME 4
Veterinary Chaplaincy
Interfaith Spiritual Care for Pet Loss
As the first-ever textbook in the emerging field of veterinary chaplaincy, this book offers a comprehensive introduction to the principles and practice of spiritually inclusive care for people grieving the loss of an animal companion. Written for both professional caregivers and everyday people, this book explores how compassionate presence, thoughtful listening, and an understanding of grief can help us support those experiencing pet loss.
Where to buy the book
Amazon (paperback or ebook formats)
Lulu: Paperback or ebook
Lulu supports independent authors
Explore the art and science of spiritual care
Grounded in the scholarship and hands-on experience of Pet Chaplain founder Rob Gierka, EdD, Veterinary Chaplaincy provides a foundation for understanding and practicing interfaith spiritual care for pet loss. It brings together insights from spirituality, existential psychology, grief studies, and pastoral care with practical guidance for supporting people during emotionally and spiritually challenging times.
At the heart of the book is the belief that spiritual care need not be limited to ordained clergy or professional chaplains. Family members, friends, neighbors, volunteers, and others in our communities can also offer meaningful support to people grieving the loss of an animal companion.
Drawing on six key competencies for pet and veterinary chaplaincy, the book explores:
- The foundations of interfaith spiritual care. Explore the guiding principles of spiritually inclusive caregiving, the ways people make meaning in life, and beliefs about animals found in major world religions as well as alternative spiritual and secular practices.
- The art of compassionate presence. Learn essential interpersonal skills, including active listening, supportive communication, and crisis management.
- Responding to common concerns. Gain insight into how to respond to pet keepers’ common concerns, including the moral challenges of euthanasia, guilt, anger, powerlessness, and the social and religious disenfranchisement that can make grieving an animal especially painful and isolating.
- Honoring animal lives. Discover ways to create meaningful memorials, rituals, prayers, and reflections that celebrate the human–animal bond and offer comfort to those who grieve.
- Caring for people in diverse circumstances. Consider the unique needs of children, older adults, and people who rely on service or emotional support animals, along with the emotional and ethical challenges that can arise in animal-related caregiving.
- Putting spiritual care into practice. Explore opportunities for spiritual care in veterinary clinics, animal shelters, and rescue organizations, as well as community settings such as churches, homeless shelters, and domestic violence centers.
Whether you’re an experienced caregiver, someone who works or volunteers with animals, or simply a person who wants to offer compassionate support to others, Veterinary Chaplaincy provides knowledge, practical guidance, and opportunities for reflection to help you provide care with greater understanding and confidence.
Praise for Veterinary Chaplaincy
