Call or text: 925-408-5112
Dr. Cheryl’s journey throughout life has helped shape how she interacts with animals and people.
These stepping stones of life experiences
have led Cheryl on a continual path
to provide compassion, support, and care
for animals and their families.
Meet
Dr. Ramos
Founder of Pets Eternal Rest
Dr. Cheryl Ramos has been providing caring home euthanasia services for over a decade. Each family she helps care for leaves her with experiences that continue to shape her behavior and desire to help people in their time of need.
Dr. Cheryl Ramos is a UC Davis College of Veterinary Medicine graduate and a native Californian. After graduating from UC Davis, she moved to Florida to train with veterinary specialists during a one-year internship program. She returned home to the East Bay Area and worked as an emergency and critical care veterinarian for more than 10 years.
Dr. Cheryl Ramos is also certified in Jikiden Reiki. Dr. Ramos became interested in energy healing modalities after hearing multiple pet parents express they themselves or their child had the same medical condition as their animal family member.
About
Pets Eternal Rest
Relationships with our animals are very special.
Our animals are cherished members of the family. Our animal family members impact our relationships and help us to define the quality and style of our lives. Because of these close bonds, euthanasia can be one of the most difficult decisions to make in our lifetime, but it can also be one of the most compassionate.
The Decision
The decision to euthanize can be a consuming and exhaustive emotional process. You may experience many different feelings ranging from guilt, sorrow, anger, or frustration to name only a few. One day you may feel it is time to say good-bye, whereas on another day you may not. In addition, some family members may feel it is time to say good-bye where others disagree. These situations can result in conflict and heightened stress and anxiety for the entire family, including our animal family members. I believe our stress, fear, and anxiety has an even greater negative impact on our animal family members due to their high level of sensitivity. I believe our animals want to take care of us and bring us joy, so when we are upset it disrupts their natural state of being. As a result, they unnecessarily expend additional energy in an already energy-depleted body which further negatively impacts their quality of life.
Understanding from friends, counselors, family and veterinary professionals can help guide you during the euthanasia decision making process.
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Dr. Ramos, (Cheryl), at Pets Eternal Rest can help support you not only through this process but can help YOU support your animal. For more information please contact Dr. Ramos at 925-408-5112.
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Pre-Planning Services
Preplanning allows families to take time in advance to understand the process and timing of euthanasia services, explore options and have questions answered. In addition, pre-planning will not only help determine what your animal’s needs are but what needs you have too.
Grief
Grief Prior to Euthanasia and Creating a More Positive Experience
We typically grieve far in advance to the decision to euthanize. Each family member including our animal family members have their own unique grieving process. In addition to understanding each individual has their own process, it is extremely beneficial to recognize your feelings from others and not comingle them. If you can identify and separate your feelings from others you can be empowered to transform them if desired. Once undesired feelings are recognized they can be transformed to allow for a more positive experience for yourself, your family and especially for your ill animal. Our actions and I believe our thoughts affect our animals to a great degree. For this reason, I feel it is not only important to be mentally aware of what we are thinking and feeling but be open to changing our thoughts in order to better support and improve our entire family’s wellbeing.
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Acknowledgment and understanding of what you are FEELING and what you are THINKING is the first step to transforming undesired feelings. As feelings begin to surface it is helpful to describe them individually with words. By describing them with words you can begin to eliminate being overwhelmed by emotion. You can then sort out your different feelings and thoughts and determine which ones you are authentically feeling and which thoughts you have created. This step allows you to be in control of your emotions, eradicate untrue thoughts and reduce stress and anxiety. Ultimately, more of your energy can be directed toward creating a more positive experience for you, your animal and family.
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I would like to share a very personal experience that helps demonstrate the concepts above. Our family cat Venus had a terminal illness that was progressing. She was dying and I knew it. I remember standing outside the bathroom where she laid quiet but motionless. I had an overwhelming surge of emotion and felt helpless. I felt exposing her to my distress would cause her added stress so I thought to myself what can I do to prevent her from having to experience my anxiety? I thought to myself, what am I really feeling right now? I was having a range of emotions and thoughts. I decided to sort them out one by one. The one that surfaced first was the feeling of guilt. I felt guilty because I was thinking I should have spent more time with her and should be doing so right now. Layered with the guilt I felt sad because I felt I failed her. With this discovery I sat down beside her. As I sat with her my mind became quiet and my overwhelmed state began to dissipate. I soon sensed very strongly that she wanted to be left alone and have her own space. The message was so compelling I quietly stood up and stepped out of the bathroom as quietly as possible. Once out of her space I felt a wave of peace and relief. I truly felt I honored her wish. At that moment I realized my thought of not spending enough time with her especially in the state she was in was fabricated by me. It was not the truth but something I conjured up in my head. It was a powerful experience teaching me that sometimes what we think including what we think others want is not accurate and truthful. From that time on I concentrated my energy on trying to honor what Venus wanted from me. In doing so, I myself benefited as well as the rest of my family. My intent on sharing this story is to hopefully help people experience for themselves a more peaceful, meaningful journey.