INTRODUCING OUR LOVING COMPANION

There is a moment that comes for every veterinarian, and if I am being honest, it never really gets easier.

You sit with a family. You’ve known them for years, sometimes decades. You’ve cared for their animals through illness and you’ve watched that bond grow in ways most people never get to see.

And then you are asked to help them say goodbye.

As an internist, I have always known how these stories end. That is the nature of the work. No matter how advanced the medicine, no matter how attentive the care, our patients do not outlive us. Sooner or later, every case becomes about something deeper than treatment. It becomes about responsibility, compassion, and the emotional weight of loving a creature you cannot keep forever.

Early in my career, I recognized the grief clients suffered and wanted to help them. I started one of the early pet loss support groups during my training.  At the time, it wasn’t widely acknowledged. There was no clear, accepted way to process the loss of a pet. You might receive kind words from friends or family, but often it was nothing that matched the emotional depth of the experience.

Over time, that kind of support has become more normalized. Sending sympathy cards and acknowledging the loss. These are now common practices for veterinarains, but they were not always.

That perspective has stayed with me. Which brings me to Our Loving Companions.

I became involved in this project through a fellow playwright  and friend, Elizabeth Coplan, who creates immersive theater experiences around grief. Her work focuses on helping people process the loss of loved ones. Watching what she was doing, I found myself thinking: there is nothing like this for people who lose animals.

And yet, the need is there.

So I proposed an idea. What if we created something specifically for that experience?

At first, the concept leaned heavily into loss. But very quickly, I realized something important. No one is going to come to the theater to watch a story about a dog or cat dying. That’s not why people engage with art. It would feel like inviting pain without purpose.

The real story is not the loss.

The real story is the bond.

The emotional bond is the reason people continue to open their lives to animals, even when they know exactly how it will end. Most pet owners have gone through this more than once. They understand the heartbreak. And still, they do it again.

Why? Because the relationship matters that much.

Our Loving Companions is built around that idea.

This is an immersive experience that brings together short plays, poetry, music, and moments of reflection. It is not about solving grief or offering answers, but about recognizing the full emotional landscape of living with and loving an animal. The friendship, the responsibility, and yes, the loss.

Our Loving Companion is about why it is all worth it.

In many ways, this project feels like a natural extension of my life’s work. As a veterinarian, I have supported people through these moments for more than three decades. As a writer, I am trying to give those experiences another form, one that allows people to see themselves reflected on stage.

The larger goal is that we are designing this piece to travel. Something simple and adaptable. The hope is that it can be produced in different communities, from San Francisco to smaller cities across the country, and used to support local animal welfare organizations.

Because at the end of the day, this is not just about storytelling. It is about connection.

If this resonates with you, I invite you to stay in touch by joining my newsletter [link here]. We will be sharing more details as we move toward our first production this fall.

So if you have ever loved an animal, you already understand what this is about.