Orchestrate your plan and become empowered to act at the appropriate times.

Walk with your pet to the Rainbow Bridge, in control of the journey until their last breath.

Avoid doubts and guilt and gain peace of mind knowing you followed your "path of least regrets" through our...

"Partners to the Bridge"

Animal Hospice Coaching for Pet Parents

Allow veterinarians to provide your pet's medical care while Michelle guides you through our unique coaching and counseling program. Together, you will transform the end-of-life journey you share with your animal companion from an emotional rollercoaster into confidence, competence, and empowerment for you and quality of life until their end of life.

Also included: our curated collection of home care tools, tips, animal hospice planning, and decision-making tools. With access to our multi-talented network and interdisciplinary team of Animal Hospice Practitioners, you will unlock care for yourself and your animal family member in ways you never knew possible.

The "Quadruple E" framework is at the core.

Michelle Nichols, Animal Hospice Educator and Coach, will guide you to:

1. Explore your emotions surrounding the death of a beloved pet and THIS death, in particular, allowing you, the pet parent, to overcome fears and face the future.
2. Examine your options, considering veterinary recommendations about your team of supporters, your pet's course of treatment, the preferred manner of death, and, within all of the possibilities, what you see as your pet’s best life while with you on earth.
3. Envision an end-of-life plan and a backup plan consistent with your values, goals, and beliefs for you and your family that is based on all you have explored and examined.
4. Empower you to act on your plan, making decisions that are timed appropriately and according to your wishes for your pet.

The USD $849 "Partners to the Bridge" Animal Hospice Coaching for Pet Parents includes:

• five private 1-hour online Animal Hospice Coaching videoconferencing sessions
• reflective exercises to workshop during sessions and complete on your own 
• a 15-page "Partners to the Bridge" e-booklet covering home care during the end-of-life period, euthanasia decision-making, planning for a hospice-supported natural death, aftercare, and memorialization 
• a"Planning a Peaceful Euthanasia" preparation checklist
• a curated packet of home nursing care and quality-of-life tools
• a "Rainbow Bridge Sendoff Plan" for you to convey your wishes and share with your veterinarian(s) and other care team supporters  
• one 90-minute Bonus Remembrance Session, utilizing art therapy principles to engage hands, heart, and mind and promote healing 
• unlimited support, over email to address bereavement and referrals by request 

We know that, just as in birth, death is hard to predict, but it is made easier with a team of Animal Hospice Practitioners to walk beside you. No one can erase the pain when they are no longer physically by your side, but with the realization you have followed your "Path of Least Regrets," healing from the loss of your companion animal(s) will come more naturally and completely.  

We can be of most “Help” when you contact us sooner, so don't hesitate to contact the AHELP Project for Animal Hospice support and guidance.

Just follow these three easy steps to get started:

1) scroll down and click the green button to "Contact Us Today"

2) complete the 5-question Family Information form

3) Michelle will contact you directly over email to set up a 30-minute call to address your three greatest concerns and for you to learn how we can help

*HELP FOR ANIMAL HOSPICE CAREGIVERS FUND*

Thanks to the nature of our nonprofit and donations from our community, our "Help for Animal Hospice Caregivers Fund" can contribute to the fees to cover our Coaching sessions. We'd be happy to discuss this fund and how it can help you in our 30-40-minute initial phone consultation.

We look forward to hearing from you and helping you, your family, and your animal companion. 

How will I get over the loss of my best friend? We in AHELP have come to know that you don’t get OVER a loss; you get THROUGH your loss…

We commonly hear, "what can I do to feel better?" In this post we offer a few practical tips that can be "a Help" to you and your family during the hospice period and after their passing.

A ceremony at your companion's favorite spot can be a valuable in helping you get closure after their passing. Michelle Nichols and her daughter Zoe sprinkle Sora's cremains at the beach she had loved. (Photo: Chris Nichols)

Michelle Nichols, MS
AHELP Project Director and Co-founder

Most of us don’t wish to think about the approaching death of our pet. How many of us have tried to conveniently forget that it won’t happen (denial) or that NOT thinking about their declining health will make the reality go away (avoidance)?

Elaine Lam and Mone Mone enjoy quiet time together. (photo: Elaine Lam)

Why Caregiver Support Matters

You’ve heard it before: “Please secure your oxygen mask first, then assist your loved one.” We all know that we can't take good care of our loved one if we don't take care of ourselves - but how can you when your focus is 100% on your pet? "Why do I need caregiver support?" We hear it often! Your animal friend cannot do it without you attending to their needs, however, you can only provide the best care for your pet if you also attend to YOUR needs.

That's why we focus on caregiver support; animal caregivers need support just like those caring for ill and aging human patients. Together, we will empower you to achieve a good quality of life for your pet until the end, you know you've forged your path of least regrets and healing comes with more ease. 

Scroll down to learn how caregiver support helps address these pet parents' common concerns... 

 

Comprehensive Hospice Comfort Care Team "People want the same care for their animal family members as benefitted their human loved ones. Now, the practice of animal hospice and palliative care allows them to do so." Dr. Amir Shanan, DVM, CHPV Founder, International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care  Co-founder, Animal Hospice Group Certified Hospice and Palliative Care Veterinarian

Do any of these concerns sound familiar to you? 

“I just want my furry friend to be comfortable and don’t know where to turn.”

We know the value in seeking guidance and companionship while considering options for comfort care versus more aggressive treatments to cure their illness. You may seek more support than your veterinarian alone can provide. Our framework ensures you feel seen, heard, and understood. We help you explore the best care options for your pet based on your values and goals, and build an end-of-life plan you can confidently share with your veterinary team.

“I want to know when it’s time for euthanasia.”

Deciding when to euthanize a beloved pet is hard. Even with your vet’s advice, uncertainty can remain. There isn’t a perfect moment—only the best decision made with love. We’ll help you assess your pet’s quality of life, talk with your vet, and ensure your pet doesn’t suffer. Our goal is to support you in making a compassionate decision you can find peace with.

"My veterinarian offered me unsettling options: surgery, another round of tests, or ‘call-me-when-you-want-a-euthanasia.’"

It breaks your heart to imagine life without your furry friend, but the same clinical tests yet again don’t seem to change anything, and surgery seems unfair to her. Our guidance and decision-making fundamentals will give you what you need to make informed choices and feel in control again. 

“I can’t get over how guilty I feel about my last pet’s passing. I don’t know how I could do that again.”

You second-guessed yourself last time, hoping for a recovery that never came, and by the time you called on your veterinarian, you felt sure she was suffering. Bottling up your pain over this weakens you and makes you question your faith in yourself. Our steps will help you explore and heal from past emotions, giving you a more confident outlook for the future.

“I’m running out of energy to continue this level of pet care, yet she still really needs me.”

Burnout is a real risk for dedicated solo animal caregivers and is more common than you think. You might feel exhausted, stuck, or even ashamed to admit you are overwhelmed. Trust in AHELP to help you find heart-centered and compassionate solutions to continue caring for your beloved pet without sacrificing your well-being and with self-care in mind.

“I was on an emotional rollercoaster, and I’ll never forgive myself for letting her go too soon.”

You feel terribly that you might have stopped short of understanding your pet’s end-of-life options, yet forgiving yourself seems impossible. You want to look back this time, knowing you did all you could. Our guidance and support in animal hospice and palliative care can help you build a plan you can trust in, look back on your journey without regrets, and lead you smoothly to healing. 

"We have a veterinarian I trust, but I wonder if they are ALL we need right now."

You have heard about other approaches to comfort and caring, and feel it's time to explore if they are the right fit for your needs at this crucial time. We know that your pet needs a veterinary team you can trust so good for you - and for your pet - if you already do.  Feel free to ask about our network of providers who treat body and mind more "whole-istically." Your furry friend's end of life experience often benefits when adding a hospice-aligned practitioner or a veterinarian to your team.

“The thought of another expense like pet hospice care will overwhelm my finances.”

Another trip to the vet clinic, another $1,000 spent. Your heart says to do everything, but that nagging voice persists. Did you know that pet hospice care is typically more affordable than traditional veterinary services? We understand the financial burden and can help you find cost-effective alternatives for your pet, while also supporting yourself and your loved ones. Also, discontinuing aggressive treatments and opting for pet hospice comfort care can often give you more precious time together.

At AHELP, We Understand the Challenges of Animal Caregiving.

We get you! We know that providing hospice care for your furry friend can be deeply rewarding and create lasting memories, but it can also be challenging. 

Our mission is to provide companionship, expert guidance, affordable solutions, and compassionate support to ensure you and your pet navigate these harrowing times with peace and confidence.

Comfort. Choices. Empowerment.

Animal Hospice, End-of-Life, and Palliative Care Project

"What is animal hospice? What is palliative care?"

We often use palliative care and hospice care interchangeably because both focus on comfort rather than cure. Palliative care can be employed at any stage of the patient's disease process. Hospice care, technically a form of palliative care, is used when the patient is terminally ill and no longer pursuing curative treatments.

These terms were first used in human healthcare before being applied to veterinary care. Due to insurance standards, hospice care specifically applies when the patient is expected to live less than six months. Most families opt for euthanasia for their pets before the end of life, making it more complicated to predict companion animals' lifespans accurately due to less available data.

Palliative and hospice care involve an interdisciplinary team of veterinarians and family service providers offering comprehensive physical, emotional, and spiritual care. When applied to animals, we consider the social well-being of the animal, recognizing the strong "human-animal bond" between the caregiver(s) and their pet.

"Why choose animal hospice and palliative care for my pet?"

In human hospice care, families receive support and empowerment to provide loving care, which enhances their coping skills and subsequent healing. Many of us desire the same compassionate care for our furry, feathered, and scaled family members, so we turn to animal hospice and palliative care.

While the responsibilities of hospice can be challenging, families gain confidence in their caregiving skills with the guidance of the hospice care team. By focusing on comfort rather than cure, families and their pet can enjoy a higher quality of life, allowing the animal to live more comfortably and potentially longer. This approach provides more time to fulfill bucket lists and adapt to new normals, while also preparing emotionally for a precious farewell.

Caregivers find satisfaction in knowing they did all they could to support their loved one, strengthening their bond and creating cherished memories during their pet’s final days. Though challenging, this "path of least regrets" often makes the healing process smoother and more meaningful.

"What kind of diseases or conditions warrant hospice and/or palliative care?"

A hospice or palliative care approach is commonly chosen in animals with:

• cancer
• organ failure [kidneys, liver and heart are common examples]
• arthritis
• cognitive dysfunction (dementia)
• general "slowing down" or chronic conditions that are worsening
• any life-limiting condition that contributes to an excessive burden of caregiving for a family
• a recommendation for interventions like surgery that are unacceptable to the family's wishes

"As a caregiver, what are my responsibilities in providing animal hospice care?"

If you have found this site, you likely already provide a high level of care for your animal family member. Caring for an aging, ill, or dying pet is similar to caring for a child or an older adult. Fulfilling the following responsibilities will allow you to provide compassionate and effective hospice care for your pet:

1. Educate Yourself: Learn about your pet’s condition and ways to ensure their highest comfort.
2. Monitor Quality of Life: Regularly assess your pet’s well-being and communicate with the hospice team.
3. Make Informed Decisions: Work with the hospice team to make care decisions and act on them promptly.
4. Self-Care: Regularly assess your well-being and ensure you care for yourself. Care for the caregiver is essential!
5. Daily Nursing Care: Be prepared to be available most of the day for your pet's needs or arrange for a secondary caregiver, such as a housemate or neighbor, to help. If your budget allows, consider hiring a skilled pet sitter regularly.

"What kind of a veterinarian should our animal companion see now?"

Choose a veterinary team that suits your pet's needs and supports your wishes. If you like your current veterinarian, you don’t need to leave their care. However, you may want someone who can make house calls and communicate via phone or email. If your vet can't meet these needs, consider adding a hospice-focused veterinarian to your team.

When interviewing a hospice-focused veterinarian, ask about their training, continuing education, and experience in end-of-life care. Home euthanasia is just one service they offer, so inquire about other services. Collaborating with a hospice-focused vet alongside your regular vet is reasonable and doesn't necessarily increase costs. Choosing comfort care at home often reduces clinic visits, making it affordable.

Complementary therapies are excellent adjunctive support for animals approaching the end of life. Ask your veterinary team about the potential to improve well-being by the following holistic or complementary veterinary services:

"What is all this about an Interdisciplinary Team approach?"

Since the physical comfort of the animal patient is paramount to continuing hospice care, veterinarians who can do house calls are naturally at the team's core. Best practices speak to the need for emotional and spiritual “care for the caregiver,” so families benefit from mental health professionals, chaplains, and spiritual counselors. Pet sitters skilled in senior care are important logistically; veterinary technicians who come to the home to nurse the animal patient and/or teach and assist the family in doing so themselves are ideal. As our animals’ energy levels diminish, gentler alternative therapies effectively preserve quality of life. Other team members’ services that can contribute to comfort for the animal and the family are massage and bodywork, swim therapy, aromatherapy, homeopathy, energy work, acupressure, flower essences, and music therapy (chanting, sound baths, or recordings).  

"Why do I feel so sad already when my animal friend was just recently diagnosed?  Few people seem to understand what I’m going through."

We know that grief associated with your friend’s loss begins much before the actual death occurs, and the name for this is “anticipatory grief.” These emotions sneak up on us and affect our effectiveness in many aspects of our lives. Grief is work! It is never easy, but it can be easier with the support of a team that values “care for the caregiver,” a cornerstone of hospice philosophy. Yes, the ability to think clearly will directly affect how effective you can be in your care for your animal companion. Consider that respite, time away from your declining pet, can be important to your continued well-being so you can return to them recharged and refreshed.

Look for animal lovers in your circle of friends and family, considering they may not see things as you do. Especially in this case, we encourage you to reach out to like-minded individuals in your community and online who have been through similar situations and “get it.” Look to your local animal shelter and pet funeral homes for loss support groups. Human hospice programs in your local hospital offer grief and bereavement services to the public (interview the program to discover their views on animal hospice first). Less formal sharing can be found in social media private groups, especially on Facebook. Look for phone help lines, chat rooms, and forums. While some are paid services, others are provided on a donations-basis and can be worthwhile as an additional listening ear or expand your base of ongoing support. If your coping diminishes and you need further help, look for therapists and counselors specializing in pet loss, interviewing them first to be sure your views match with theirs. AHELP can offer you referrals to practitioners who can help you find ways to handle your grief. 

"I am concerned about my child’s well-being while he or she prepares to lose his best friend. Should he or she be a part of this process?"

Children learn responsibility and love in caring for their family pets. Similarly, aging, illness, and death provide rich lessons about the cycle of life. Just as with adult caretakers, children can be taught techniques to remain involved with their animal friend’s care so they might feel important and even inspired by this tender and memorable time. Depending upon your child’s temperament and your careful preparation, consider allowing them to be present at the time of death. A child therapist could be considered if you would like another opinion about how to assist in their coping and grief work.

"I am overwhelmed by all the decisions and information confronting me. How do I know 'when?'"

Hospice providers encourage caregivers to make a plan that begins with their values, goals, and beliefs for their animal and their family. Your veterinary team's main role is to educate you about your pet’s disease course, including indicators of the dying process. With the assistance of your care team, you will be constantly assessing quality of life for you and your animal companion. With your beloved’s decline, you can identify mileposts that signal the appropriate time to enact your plan. Just as you have always cared for and nurtured them, you will find that during this time, your intuition and your intention to make good decisions on their behalf will seem natural in many respects.

"I can deal with burial, cremation, and memorialization once the time comes..."

Making aftercare arrangements ahead of time helps you prepare emotionally for the time to come. You won’t want to be confronted with those decisions at that tender time. Depending upon what you choose, you will want to consider a way to keep cremains or the way you will bury the body. In most cities, you can find pet cremation centers and pet funeral homes that will take care of all the arrangements, also gaining popularity. Pet cemeteries are less common but can be found. Consider precautions and local regulations if you wish to bury on private property. If it's interesting, you may look into green burials and more environmentally friendly options to traditional cremation. Many choose group cremation to conserve considerable money but be aware that you won't get the ashes back.

"I want to learn more about options for death with and without euthanasia. Are both available with hospice care for my animal friend?"

Hospice philosophy recognizes that a "good death" may mean different things to different families and is as individual an experience as being born. Under a care team comprised of a qualified veterinarian and multi-talented providers, both euthanasia and hospice-assisted natural death are humane options for our animal family members. Good communication between your veterinarian and the rest of the hospice team is important to giving your animal companion a good death and meeting your expectations for what that will be like. Especially if you are interested in hospice-assisted natural death for your friend, you must seek out a veterinarian who is comfortable with this kind of dying process. You may also ask that your veterinarian consult with a veterinary hospice care provider if no one is in your area. Most important is the understanding that hospice philosophy includes all modes of dying for animals.

"I'm so sad now that my beloved animal companion is gone. What can I do to feel better?"

Using rituals to honor your animal companion’s life can promote emotional healing and enrich your family's validation of the loss. Once you are ready to share, you might be surprised at your community's support and even find comfort in their words and actions. You could write a tribute to go into an email announcement or use online tools to make a video from pictures showing his or her remarkable lifetime. Plan a celebration of life or a ceremony while you sprinkle ashes in your friend's special spot. Look to the Web for resources, where you will find memorial websites and items of remembrance like jewelry and other art that will incorporate the cremains. There is something for everybody!

"What should I do if AHELP Project services aren't for me but I'd like to explore animal hospice and palliative care further?" 

Share your wishes with your veterinarian and ask how s(he) feels about a hospice and palliative care approach. Many veterinarians have yet to be taught it in school, and at the time of this writing, there are no textbooks and few resources in the scientific literature. If they want to learn more, refer them to the International Association of Animal Hospice and Palliative Care Practice Guidelines published in 2012. (www.IAAHPC.org). They may also refer to the Guidelines due to be published in March 2016 by the American Animal Hospital Association (www.AAHA.org), whose accreditation ensures excellence in the profession. It's reasonable to seek a second opinion to be more satisfied with your veterinarian's ideas. In the greater Seattle area, consider contacting our local community who want the same for their animal family member as you do. Regardless of your geographical region, you can find professionals of all backgrounds on the IAAHPC.org Service Providers page. 

When a multitalented group of seven, from veterinarians to senior care pet sitters to spiritual counselors, sold out a one-day workshop at the Kirkland Women’s Club on a crisp fall day in 2010, it became clear that other animal lovers wanted to know more. Following the “Introduction to Animal Hospice and End of Life Home Care,”  we recognized that animal hospice awareness should become a nonprofit mission. However, we weren’t clear about how to accomplish that. So we would become a “Pet Project” until we finally landed on the looong name that would grow with the organization. But it was begging for an acronym, and AHELP Project was the perfect choice.

Thanks to our community supporters and sponsors, we realized our mission to promote human hospice ideals in animal care through community awareness programs. Sponsors assisted us to get our 501c(3) status in 2013. We held Open Houses featuring practitioners whose services contributed to comfort, an animal hospice certification program, and mentorship and training for volunteers at the Seattle Veterinary Specialists-Blue Pearl Kirkland. To keep up operations and contribute to our “Help for Animal Hospice Caregivers Fund,” we held FUNdraisers at pet-friendly venues such as Northwest Cellars (Kirkland) and Norm’s Eatery and Alehouse (Fremont, Seattle).  Local artisans taught us to use hands, hearts, and minds to create memorials to remember our pets at our art therapy-inspired Creative Healing Workshops. These principles inspire us today.  

In time, AHELP became an animal hospice resource for pet parents in greater Seattle, and families began reaching out for individualized caregiver support. Pet parents found solace in our Animal Caregiver Support Circles led by AHELP Co-founder Diane Dyer. Michelle Nichols assisted caregivers solve homecare challenges and companioned them to ensure they could comfortably follow their pet's care plan Comprehensive Care Home Visits. AHELPer volunteers with skills and talents in animal massage, aromatherapy, and energy work contributed to comfort for the pets. Active listening was and still is a guiding principle of any AHELP Care Team Member, and our pet parent mantra is “we get it!” 

In 2024, we are modernizing our programs to meet more pet parents where they need help the most, in the home. As an animal hospice resource that extends beyond greater Seattle, we offer our coaching over videoconferencing, are developing an online class to reach pet parents more affordably, and look toward launching the "Animal Hospice Podcast" in late 2025.

Core Values

Respect

Compassion

Teamwork

Community

CLICK to meet Michelle Nichols, AHELP Founder and Animal Hospice Coach.

CLICK to learn how "Partners to the Bridge Coaching for Pet Parents" can help you and your animal friend.

CLICK to get our newsletter, with pearls of wisdom and animal hospice stories from our "Caregivers' Tips and Tales" blog.