Pickles and Vodka: a Mental Health Podcast · Christina & Lauren

#234 The Dead Pet Episode feat. Vikki

·36 min·2 clips

The episode's clearest advice is that second-guessing a pet-loss decision is pointless because you cannot go back.

Christina, Lauren, and returning guest Vicky open gently. They name the subject right away: dead pets, Pico's gotcha day, and the first anniversary of his death pressing into the same stretch of time. The timing is the point. Lauren talks about knowing the dates were coming and feeling the dread build anyway, which gives the conversation a clear emotional spine. She tried to make room for it. A dog-friendly cafe and a small get-together become one way of keeping the day from swallowing itself. That helps. From there, the three of them move into the strange timing of grief, especially the way some people feel detached at first and only later get hit with the full weight of it. No one pretends there is a rule. They keep repeating that there is no blueprint, no correct amount of crying, and no deadline for when a loss should stop feeling fresh. The guilt shows up too. They talk about how weird it can feel to laugh, travel, or have a decent moment after a miserable stretch, and how easily that turns into second-guessing. That part lands close to home. Vicky brings her own experience of pet grief into the room, including the urge to push it aside until it comes back on its own terms. The episode does not try to outsmart that. Instead, it treats avoidance, compartmentalizing, and delay as normal parts of how people survive something they do not know how to carry. There are memorial objects. Christina mentions urn jewelry that holds a tiny bit of ashes, and the detail gives the loss a physical shape without making it feel formal or stiff. The jokes still land. By the end, the conversation has wandered through memory, pets, sadness, and a few tangents, but it keeps returning to the same thing: you do the best you can with what you knew then.

As heard by us

A blunt, tender walk through pet grief without pretending it has a script.

Pickles and Vodka turns a pet-death anniversary into a clear-eyed conversation about dread, guilt, and the quiet relief of talking grief through before it hardens.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You need company for a pet anniversary that keeps dragging at your chest.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Pickles and Vodka: a Mental Health Podcast