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The late Oscar
As the founder of Flux Trends, Dion Chang spent decades unpacking the latest trends and how they could work for your business. He admits he’ s had plenty of career transitions, but his fourth, a companion death doula might be his most profound yet. In A Pawfect Life, Dion says that when he trained as an end-of-life companion doula his trainer told him two things:“ One, that I didn’ t just decide to become an end-oflife doula on a whim. That it’ s a calling; and I would come to realise that I’ ve been doing much of this work all along.”
His book was meant to be about him becoming an endof-life companion doula and instead he delves into the entire spectrum of the pet experience. So how did a trends analyst find himself a leading pet authority?
“ The spark for the book actually came from a statistic I came across in 2023: in South Korea, where birth rates have dropped dramatically, the country’ s largest e-commerce retailer sold more pet strollers than baby prams that year.”
The rise of pet parenting
In places like the US and Japan, there are more households with pets than children under the age of 15.“ It became clear that this isn’ t just a quirky lifestyle trend; it’ s a profound demographic and cultural shift.”
The concept of family is evolving rapidly – and, as Dion points out, pets have naturally become part of that evolution.“ The rise of the so-called DINKWADs( double income, no kids, with dogs) are redefining what a modern family looks like.”
Historically, animals were working companions.“ Dogs guarded homes and cats kept rodents away. But over time they moved from the yard to the kitchen, then the lounge, and now they sleep on our beds.”
The changing face of pet grief
Though there has been a shift, mourning your pet would still garner you a side-eye from some of your not-as-blessed colleagues.“ A big focus of my work is what’ s known as disenfranchised grief – grief that society doesn’ t always recognise or validate. Pet owners often experience this when they lose an animal companion”, says Dion
Most pet owners can relate to being told to‘ Just get over it’ after losing a beloved pet. But, says Dion,“ anyone who’ s shared 15 or 20 years with a beloved animal knows it’ s not that simple. These pets are beside us every day – on our beds, next to our desks, woven into the rhythm of our lives.”
Luckily, as Dion points out, this is starting to change. There are even companies that offer pet bereavement,“ pawternity leave” for new puppies or kittens and Italy has introduced family responsibility leave that includes pets.“ These workplace shifts signal a growing recognition of just how meaningful our relationships with pets truly are.”
As an end-of-life companion doula, Dion’ s philosophy for death is the same for humans and pets: leave nothing left unsaid.
In A Pawfect Life, Dion writes about his cat, Moby, who he says taught him a great deal about mindfulness.“ At one stage www. petpals. co. za 15