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Honoring my Childhood Pet on October 27th
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By Frieda Lopez
Many may not know, but October 27 is the day when, according to tradition, lost pets return home during Día de los Muertos. Every year when we set up our altar, we make sure to place the image of my childhood pet right alongside our loved ones.
The year he passed was incredibly hard. I had never experienced a loss before, and I never imagined how painful it would be to lose a pet. He was like my little brother. Everywhere we went, he came too. Whenever we all sat in the living room to watch movies, he would snuggle up with us. Losing him was like losing a family member, and grieving was just as hard.
That same year, we set up our very first altar. For me, the one thing I contributed was making sure it included ofrendas for him. I wanted him to be remembered just as much as everyone else.
Gathering the Pieces
When it came to creating his altar, we started with one of our favorite photos of him, a picture of him running with his chew toy in his mouth. He loved playing fetch, though he never really understood the game. We always had to chase him to get the toy back so we could throw it again, because he’d get upset if we didn’t… even though he never wanted to let it go.
We also included:
- His collar, wrapped around his two favorite chew toys:
Toy #1: A small stuffed dog that had no filling or eyes left because he’d had it since he was a puppy. He never wanted to let it go, and whenever my mom washed his bed and toys, he would look for it right away.Toy #2: A bone-shaped stuffed toy (also without stuffing) that he loved to play catch with and would carry outside whenever we took him for walks.
