My name is Kevin Ringstaff, and I am the founder of PetCloud. I spend my days talking about grief and educating people on how to support their friends, family, and co-workers through their grief. Mostly though, my daily job is to listen to the stories of love and loss by other people.

I moved to San Francisco in 2019 to build and grow this community into a place where anyone, anywhere can come and share their grief and get support from others who really do understand the pain and anguish we go through when we lose someone we love.

Through my studies and counseling over the years, I’ve learned quite a lot about grief. It’s safe to say that as a society, we all have a tendency to hold on to grief. It’s awkward and uncomfortable to talk about. We feel like we might be judged especially if we tell other people how much we are hurting because of our losses.

I got into this business because of a loss of my own, Henry “Fats” Rothschild “Henry”, who was my furry orange monstrosity of a cat. When I lost him, I didn’t have anyone in my life that I really felt comfortable talking with about that kind of grief. So, like I did with most grief in my life, I just pushed it down and held it in. I went on like this for a long time until I found out about the Association for Pet Loss & Bereavement (www.aplb.org), started by Dr. Wallace Sife. I got certified as a pet loss bereavement counselor through their program, and I’ve been helping people ever since.

Since that time, I've gone on to become a registered Pet Chaplain and a certified Grief Recovery Specialist ®, and now I'm in school again to be a Board Certified Chaplain. I'm always reading and studying more about grief and looking to speak to anyone who will listen.