Pet Cremation Memorials

Pet Cremation Memorials - Beauty is Key

I began designing pet urns and keepsakes ten years ago, and have since loved contributing to the healing process of families who have lost their furry companion.  I’ve dedicated myself to making urn and keepsake offerings that enable one to create a meaningful memorial to their pet.  

Meadow Pet Urn

By selecting an urn or keepsake that somehow reminds us of our pet, we commemorate the life that contributed so much to ours.  An urn or keepsake that aptly represents our sweet little friend conjures warm loving memories as life goes on.  It's especially important during the first days and weeks after losing our pet, to have a focus that expresses the unique spirit of our little loved one.  Engraving the brass closure with a few thoughtful words about our pet, creates a lasting and meaningful memorial to the importance of their life. 

Blue Heaven Pet Urn

When my husband and I lost our little Pickle, we decided to conduct a scattering ceremony with her ashes, as a kind of personal funeral in our back yard.  This was an intimate and very healing ritual, with each of us saying a few meaningful words prior to the scattering.  Now we have engraved the brass closure with her name, dates, and a few words, to make a permanent memorial that sits on a shelf in our kitchen, nearby her feeding station.  Having scattered her ashes, we instead placed her tags and a wee baggie of catnip within the spherical urn.  I know of many families who do not request the ashes back from the cremation, but rather choose to conduct a funeral around the placing of mementos into the urn, and saying a few words.

The final location of the pet memorial urn can be any appropriate place in the home, like on a fireplace mantel, in a china cabinet, on a book shelf, at bedside or on your work desk.  With a permanent memorial urn nearby, the memory of our pet continues to shine on, reminding us of their beautiful loving spirit.
  
Producing inspiring pet urns is my goal, and I’m so happy to have chosen this path.  Some of the testimonials I’ve received on my web site attest to the healing effect that has rippled through people’s lives:   http://www.cremation-urns-legacy.com/Cremation-Urn-Testimonials-s/1859.htm .

Barbara Bergen, Designer
Cremation Urns by Legacy offers free shipping everywhere in continental North America.
See our complete line of inspiring pet cremation urns in our web store:
If you are in the USA, please go to our US store. 
If you are in Canada, please go to our Canadian store. 

Communal Pet Urn?

Does your family include several pets?  A couple of dogs and at least one cat to keep them in line?
If this is your way of life, you no doubt revel in the constant motion and joyful chaos they bring to your family's day-to-day.  And you are no doubt also aware of the ratio of your life-years to theirs, and the bitter loss when one of them reaches their end of life.

Knowing that several of your furry friends will pass away during your lifetime, there is a way to simplify the rites of passage for each of them, by having a communal urn at the ready.

Meadow Large Urn, holds ashes from pets up to 200 lbs.

When one of our pets passes on to pet heaven, their cremation ashes may go into an individual urn, but a communal urn is another option.  Each pet may be added to one large urn in turn over the years, each in their own plastic baggie.  And their tags could go in the upper sphere of any of our sphere-topped large urns.

The benefit of having one communal urn is that your pets will all be together eventually, and you will have a beautiful urn on your mantel, book shelf or china cabinet that will house them all in one place, versus several small individual urns.

I have found that in the first days after losing one of our pets, when we've received the ashes back from the crematory, it's been helpful to my family to gather together and conduct a brief funeral ceremony for our beloved dog or cat.  We bring out the communal urn, add the cremains within it, then each of us says a few words of remembrance.  It helps us to process our grief together, and begin the healing.

Here is a coupon code to use for purchasing an urn from our web store:  LOVE20, for 20% off your order - simply enter the code during checkout.  (And free shipping still applies!)

All best wishes,

Barbara Bergen, Designer
If you are in the USA:  http://www.cremation-urns-legacy.com
If you are in Canada: http://www.cremationurnsbylegacy.ca

Create a Pet Memorial - With or Without Ashes

Losing a pet can be as traumatic as the loss of a family member, because they are one.  We share our daily life with them, their love is unconditional, and we form a deep relationship that, when removed, can cause devastating grief.

It can be comforting to create a memorial to our beloved friend, and this can take the form of an urn that contains the cremation ashes ... or not.  Many families choose to either bury their pet, or scatter the cremains, or simply not to receive the ashes back from the crematory.  In the absence of ashes, a memorial may be comprised of a vessel to contain mementos, rather than ashes.

When I lost my cat Pickle, who had been my close and consistent companion for 21 years, I was inconsolable.  I had been with her in her last moments of euthanasia to relieve her of the pain and illness from which she was not going to recover.  Her vet took care of the cremation details, and I did not want her ashes back.  I decided instead to make a memorial for her with one of my spheres - I chose a small green iridescent one, because the colour reminded me of her eyes.  In it I placed her tags, a small bag of catnip, and a sprig of eucalyptus because she was attracted to the smell, and the way she could play hockey with it - whenever I clipped a bit from a floral arrangement for her, she would play with it for days, batting it around the floor endlessly.  I took the brass disc closure to my jeweler to be engraved:  "Piccolo, aka The Pickle ... We'll Miss You, Little One".

Memorial to Piccolo, aka The Pickle

My husband and I had a very brief but hugely meaningful little funeral ceremony for her under her favourite climbing tree - which she couldn't climb any longer in her later years, but she loved to sit in its shade and taunt the squirrels above her.  We each held her sphere memorial in our hands and in turn said a few words to bid her goodbye and thank her for all the years she'd been with me, and later with both of us. That little memorial service helped me immensely as I began the process of coping with my grief.  

Pickle's memorial sphere sits on a shelf in our kitchen, near a window.  Sometimes now, since I've managed to get through losing her, I pick up her sphere and just hold it and smile, remembering what a great cat she was.  And what a wonderful presence she had been in my life.  

In case it's helpful, if and when you may need to cope with the loss of a pet, whether a cat or dog, hamster or horse, I'd like to offer a discount promo code: enter MYPET during checkout for 10% off your order in either of my two web stores.  Creating a memorial to your pet can provide some comfort as you and your family begin to process your grief, and over time this permanent memorial will provide a loving reminder of the life they shared with you. 

If you're in Canada, visit www.cremationurnsbylegacy.ca.  
Or, if in the US, go to www.cremation-urns-legacy.com.  
Free ground shipping is included with every order to anywhere in Canada or the USA.

Barbara Bergen is owner and designer at Cremation Urns by Legacy, an online store offering cremation urns, keepsakes, cremation jewellery, and pet urns since 2006.

Pet Memorial Urns

Losing a pet can be just as devastating as losing a family member - after all, our pets are our constant companions, part of our daily life, and indeed members of our family.  Many pet owners have trouble coming to terms with their pet loss, and struggle with understanding the depth of their grief.

It can be helpful to create a memorial.  I have designed a collection of very special pet cremation urns for this purpose, some of which are shown here.  Some have shimmering iridescent 'Tiffany style' glazes, and others have fanciful designs and patterns that are embedded as they are blown into the glass spheres.These urns have a brass 'closure' to provide a circular space for engraving name, dates, and a few thoughtful words.  Engraving can be done by your local jewelery or trophy shop, or we can do the engraving for you.  

Pet Cremation Urns that Serve as a Memorial

The spherical shape of one of of these pet urns can be helpful in the process of moving through grief, as the sphere fits perfectly in one's hands, for moments of remembrance and mourning. 

The brass closure is designed to be discreet, by placing the engraving face-down in the stand.  This way, the message on the closure creates a memorial that only the family is aware of, because visitors to their home will see only a beautiful object of art. However, some families prefer to place the engraved closure face-out for all to see, especially during the near term after losing their pet. 

Brass Closure for Engraving Upon

Some pet parents wish to place only the pet's tags within the sphere, and there is a velvet pouch inside for this purpose.  Other families benefit by conducting a scattering ceremony in a back yard or another location that holds special meaning, and enclosing only a portion of their pet's ashes within the sphere - there is a plastic liner bag provided that will separate the ashes from the tags in the velvet pouch.  Scattering the ashes as part of a life celebration can be emotionally helpful in the process of grieving, as it allows family members to say a few words in a remembrance ceremony that affords a sense of closure, much as a funeral service would do.

Still other families choose one large full-sized (human) cremation urn, to serve as a communal vessel for all their pets throughout life.  Most of our full-sized adult urns have a volume capacity for 200 cubic inches of ash, which is sufficient space for a combined weight of several pets up to a total of 200 lbs. 

'Meadow' Full-Sized Urn

Sometimes a small keepsake is enough to mark the importance of the life of our lost pet.  We have affordable keepsakes such as our series of glass hearts, which contain no ashes, but provide a polished back upon which to laser engrave a few words of memorial.

The ways in which we address pet loss are ever evolving. The most important step is acknowledging the depth of our grieving, and finding ways to process it, such as creating a memorial with which to commemorate our faithful friend and family member.

Barbara Bergen is Designer and CEO of Cremation Urns by Legacy.  Her goal is to help families cope with their loss by providing beautiful urns and keepsakes, including a selection of artistic pet memorial urns.