Sarah Chauncey on dealing with the lack of a pet, the drawing that grew to become the beginning of the e-book, and being counterintuitive.
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The grief we really feel on the lack of a pet continues to be a type of disenfranchised grief. Sarah Chauncey’s PS. I Love You Extra Than Tuna is a poignant and touching meditation on pet loss, fantastically illustrated by Francis Tremblay. It is the right reward for anybody who has misplaced a cat, or certainly any type of pet. It made me cry (however in a great way) and I’ve given it to buddies to assist deliver them consolation after they have misplaced their pet.
You may hear Sarah Chauncey discuss concerning the e-book at Bark! Fest, the e-book pageant for animal lovers. She’s on a panel known as Our Bond with Cats with Sarah Chauncey, Sassafras Patterdale (Lowrey), and Rachel Wells.
P.S. I Love You Extra Than Tuna is accessible from all good bookstores, together with through Bookshop (and Bookshop UK) which help impartial bookstores, in addition to my Amazon retailer.
Beneath, Sarah Chauncey solutions my questions concerning the e-book, and shares the drawing that began all of it.
Why did you write this e-book?
When my first soul-cat, Hedda, died in 2016, I couldn’t discover a lot on-line that addressed pet loss grief, particularly round cats. An artist pal of mine despatched me a sketch of Hedda with a word “from” her that ended “p.s. I like you greater than tuna.” By means of my tears, I believed that may be an ideal title for a pet loss reward e-book, and the imaginative and prescient was born.
{Our relationships} with animals are distinctive—pets see and settle for facets of us we’d be hesitant to indicate one other human. But we stay in a tradition that largely denies the facility of the human-animal bond, so when an animal pal dies, family and friends usually don’t know what to say, or they are saying unhelpful issues, like “Can’t you simply get one other one?” I wished Tuna to supply readers comfort and inspiration—and their buddies, the consumers, the flexibility to supply tangible consolation.
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| The unique sketch by Francis Tremblay that in the end led to this e-book. |
What are the primary themes of your e-book?
That all the pieces that’s born finally dies. Saying goodbye is painful, and we’ve got to grieve, but it surely doesn’t imply something is improper. That is simply a part of the human life expertise, like love.
The primary legislation of thermodynamics says that power can’t be created or destroyed; it may well solely change kind. Like us, our animals are stardust—the iron of their blood, just like the iron in ours, is identical mineral that makes Mars crimson. A caterpillar has to die in kind earlier than a butterfly can emerge from the very same natural materials. So despite the fact that our animal buddies’ our bodies are gone, the life power that animated them shouldn’t be. It’s throughout us, all the time.
What shocked you whilst you had been writing the e-book?
How little it really needed to do with ‘writing’. I’ve been knowledgeable artistic author for nearly 40 years, and the primary draft got here pouring out in about two hours (the e-book solely comprises 500 phrases). In contrast, as lots of my buddies have identified, my common e-mail comprises at the very least twice that quantity!
It’s humorous that my most seen ‘success’ occurred with little or no of my very own enter. But—that is my shock on the response—practically each reader has stated that it made them cry in a great way and helped them to heal. That was true whereas I used to be writing it, too—I cried each time I learn the strains.
Inform me one thing about your writing course of and the way it formed this e-book.
TUNA was totally different than something I’d ever written earlier than. That I may one way or the other write one thing that turned out to be so highly effective in lower than 500 phrases nonetheless amazes me.
To pay the payments, I’m a non-public writing coach and developmental editor, and with that hat on, my course of tends to be “spend a whole lot of time in nature and with animals,” as a result of each of these permit my thoughts to cool down and my unconscious to supply up concepts. I’ve written extra about this on Jane Friedman’s website and for Author’s Digest (July/August 2024).
Who will particularly take pleasure in this e-book?
First, anybody who’s grieving the lack of a cat, who anticipates dropping a cat, or who loves cats. That’s the obvious viewers. I believed it could solely be the primary group, however readers have advised me that even folks with wholesome younger cats have appreciated it.
Though the primary character is a cat, the e-book has been given to folks grieving all types of animal buddies, from canine to bunnies, birds, horses and ferrets (amongst others). The cat’s journey is a metaphor for all of us, human and non-human alike.
The thought was/is for buddies, household, neighbours and colleagues to present this e-book to somebody who’s grieving; that half grew out of my very own expertise with a each day giving observe. The observe brings me a lot pleasure that I wished to share that, too. After all, it’s wonderful for anybody to purchase the e-book for themselves, too!
What are you engaged on proper now?
On the Tuna entrance, I’ve a Substack the place I share tips about caring for a senior or in poor health pet, making ready for the eventual loss, and navigating that loss. I solely ship about one e-newsletter a month, however there’s a whole lot of useful content material within the archive.
My ardour undertaking, The Counterintuitive Information to Life, comes from hundreds of notes I took over the course of seven years of solitary contemplation and deep inside work. It’s about serving to folks discover inside peace by studying query their conditioning and launch what isn’t serving them. Many people undergo life on autopilot—I actually did for many years—with out questioning why we’re so inflexible round sure beliefs or why we behave specifically methods. In my expertise, discovering peace is a mixture of slowing manner down, growing self-awareness abilities, unpacking our conditioning, and studying to navigate the inherent paradoxes of life. These additionally contribute to making a extra equitable world. My intention is that it will finally result in a Counterintuitive Information e-book collection.
And naturally, I’m nonetheless working as a developmental editor and author coach, a lot of which I do with my present cat, Ariel, perched on my lap.
Each week, I make a degree of spending at the very least at some point immersed in nature. I stay on the standard and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples and the Snuneymuxw First Nation, and I’m grateful to have the ability to discover untouched nature recurrently.
“Though the primary character is a cat, the e-book has been given to folks grieving all types of animal buddies.”
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