If you have ever been the giver and recipient of unconditional love from a non-human companion, you may also have come to know the tumultuous pain when that joy is replaced by grief in the face of loss…possibly even anguish as you have had to make what could possibly be the most difficult decision of your life.

I have been that giver and receiver time and again. And I have had to say good-bye. My pets have always had a very special place in my heart. Each time I have lost one, the grief has been intense. You don’t soon forget that pain but you do, over time, come to be able to look back and smile at the memories, the gift, of the moments, the feelings, the comradery.

It is all those reasons why, when I sat across the table from Tammy Wynn, CEO of Angel’s Paws, I felt a sense of deep connection with her story, her purpose, her journey.

Cagney and Lacey were more than just cats. For 18 years they were Tammy’s children. Together they got through the happy, the sad, the challenges and the accomplishments that come with life. Cagney and Lacey were Tammy’s rocks. They were ears to listen, bodies to hold, kids to encourage play.

Then, in 2003, it happened. Cagney’s health was failing and Tammy’s vet told her it was time to euthanize. “I asked why, and the explanation was just that Cagney was 18,” Tammy remembered.

That day Cagney came home but needed assistance just to stand upright in the litter box. “I knew we needed to do something so I agreed but I didn’t understand what was going on and it didn’t feel right. It was excruciating,” she told me.

That was Tammy’s first experience with death. Her second experience came one year, April 4, 2004, later when her father lost his battle with bladder cancer.

Until that day, Tammy had considered herself an apathetic agnostic. But, one day later, Tammy said she got a sign from her dad. “I came to realize there is a God and a heaven, and I was going to be in it beyond a shadow of a doubt. And I said, ‘ok God’,whatever you want from me, I’m in.”

By April 6, two words were put into Tammy’s heart. Her father’s journey and how the tender care and knowledge of hospice still fresh in her mind, it was painfully clear she wished she had that kind of support when she went through the loss of her beloved pet one year earlier. She googled animal hospice but nothing came up.

“Hospice took the most difficult day of my life and made it manageable, but with the loss of my companion of 18 years, I was alone. Dad left me with entrepreneurial genes so I thought, ‘I guess I am just supposed to invent this,’” she told me.

But there was a lot of learning to do first. Tammy’s next 3 ½ years were spent as a social worker for Hospice of Cincinnati learning all she could about the important role of hospice nursing. Then, at age 50, she went back to school be a veterinary technician to better understand the animal disease process.

Education behind her, Tammy used her entire retirement savings to purchase a building, crematory and vehicles.  Angel’s Paws opened at 3:30 pm on April 6, 2010 as the nation’s first pet hospice organization. Its multidisciplinary team supports human caregivers and their pets through its Pets Peace of Mind (in home medical care for a pet by a licensed veterinary team, and emotional support and education by licensed counselors for human family members), in home euthanasia, private cremation, and support groups and counseling.

Today Angel’s Paws has a staff of eight and serve about 1400 people each year. The Angel’s Paws team has been a part of making death more comforting for over 6500 pets since its inception.

“This is the most meaningful and most rewarding work I have ever done,” Tammy said. “Being able to support people and their pet with compassion at such a difficult time is really a gift.”