Grieving a divorce differs from other losses. In this book, Julie Rogers adds an original approach to this often written about subject. Most of us know that pets can help heal emotional wounds. We see them used in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, prisons, schools, and nursing homes. Happy Tails takes us a step further. Julie takes the struggles and triumphs of injured and abandoned animals and relates them to our own. She takes the pain of abandonment as well as the pure, unconditional love of specific, exceptional pets and identifies these intense emotions with our own—in a way that shows how all living things share the need for love.

Happy Tails is a journey beside fur, feather, and even scales. If animals could talk, what they might say about coping with one of life’s greatest dilemmas . . .

• Snickers, a long-haired dachshund who waits in line for his turn on a diving board and teaches us about blame
• Archie Lee, an epileptic cat who strums music inside box springs and teaches us about denial
• Gladys, a box turtle who sunbathes on her human mommy’s collarbone and teaches us about expectations
• Chipper, a fox squirrel who takes his coffee with cream and teaches us a mastering life
• Sydne, a Chihuahua who takes aqua therapy for her hip in a bathtub and teaches us about attitude

This self-help guide to relationship recovery is packed with helpful information about the stages of overcoming loss and establishing new intimacy. Using the compassionate bonds people make with their pets, Julie Rogers interjects fresh ideas about love, companionship, and spirituality.