The Funeral.com Journal

Resources to help you create tributes as unique as the people (and pets) you love. Learn how engraving, photos, colors, and symbols add meaning; discover scattering rituals and at-home memorial ideas. We focus on the details that matter—because small choices can carry a lifetime of comfort.

Explaining Euthanasia to Kids: Scripts for Different Age Groups - Funeral.com, Inc.

Explaining Euthanasia to Kids: Scripts for Different Age Groups

There’s a particular kind of ache that shows up when a family realizes a beloved pet is nearing the end. Adults are often juggling two worlds at once: the quiet,...

How to Plan a Peaceful At-Home Euthanasia: A Step-by-Step Guide - Funeral.com, Inc.

How to Plan a Peaceful At-Home Euthanasia: A Step-by-Step Guide

There’s a particular kind of love that shows up at the end of a pet’s life. It looks like carrying them when their legs can’t do the work anymore. It...

Is My Dog in Pain? Silent Signs Your Senior Pet is Suffering - Funeral.com, Inc.

Is My Dog in Pain? Silent Signs Your Senior Pet is Suffering

If you live with a senior dog, you already know how quietly time changes things. One day they’re leaping into the car without thinking; another day they pause at the...

Regretting the Vet Choice: Making Peace with Medical Trauma - Funeral.com, Inc.

Regretting the Vet Choice: Making Peace with Medical Trauma

The regret usually arrives after the hardest part is already over. At first, you’re simply trying to keep your pet alive, comfortable, and close. You’re making decisions in a fluorescent...

Behavioral Euthanasia: The Unique Stigma of Putting a Dangerous Dog Down - Funeral.com, Inc.

Behavioral Euthanasia: The Unique Stigma of Putting a Dangerous Dog Down

There are losses that arrive with casseroles and sympathy cards. And then there are losses that arrive with silence. If you have made—or are facing—the decision often called behavioral euthanasia,...

I Killed My Best Friend: Forgiving Yourself After Making the Euthanasia Call - Funeral.com, Inc.

I Killed My Best Friend: Forgiving Yourself After Making the Euthanasia Call

There’s a sentence some people whisper only in their heads, because it feels too ugly to say out loud: “I killed my best friend.” If you’re here, you may be...

The Financial Guilt of Keeping a Sick Pet Alive (And Why It’s Okay to Stop) - Funeral.com, Inc.

The Financial Guilt of Keeping a Sick Pet Alive (And Why It’s Okay to Stop)

There’s a moment many families remember with painful clarity: the vet is speaking gently, but the numbers on the estimate feel loud. Maybe it’s a new medication that costs more...

The "Too Soon" vs. "Too Late" Dilemma: A Guide to the Final Decision - Funeral.com, Inc.

The "Too Soon" vs. "Too Late" Dilemma: A Guide to the Final Decision

If you’re reading this, you may be living inside one of the hardest questions a family ever carries: Are we choosing euthanasia too soon… or too late? It’s a dilemma...

Grieving the Loss of a Cat After Euthanasia: Letting Go of Blame and Regret - Funeral.com, Inc.

Grieving the Loss of a Cat After Euthanasia: Letting Go of Blame and Regret

The hardest part about saying goodbye to a cat is that so much of the relationship is quiet. Cats love in glances, in routines, in the soft weight of a...

Creating a Goodbye Ritual for Your Pet: Ideas for a Peaceful Final Day - Funeral.com, Inc.

Creating a Goodbye Ritual for Your Pet: Ideas for a Peaceful Final Day

There’s a particular kind of heartbreak that comes with knowing your pet’s time is near. You may be balancing medical decisions, scheduling a euthanasia appointment, watching energy fade, and trying...

Comforting Children at a Pet's Euthanasia Appointment - Funeral.com, Inc.

Comforting Children at a Pet's Euthanasia Appointment

There are few moments in family life that feel as heavy—and as tender—as a pet’s euthanasia appointment. Adults often describe it as a “final act of love,” but for kids,...

The Quality of Life Scale: An Objective Tool for a Subjective Heartbreak - Funeral.com, Inc.

The Quality of Life Scale: An Objective Tool for a Subjective Heartbreak

There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes with loving a pet who is declining. Not the obvious tiredness of interrupted sleep or extra appointments, but the quieter fatigue of...

How to Create a Peaceful Final Day for Your Pet - Funeral.com, Inc.

How to Create a Peaceful Final Day for Your Pet

When you realize your pet is nearing the end of their life—whether because of a slow decline or a scheduled euthanasia—time suddenly feels both too fast and painfully slow. You...

My Pet Is Getting Older and Declining: What Should I Be Thinking About Now? - Funeral.com, Inc.

My Pet Is Getting Older and Declining: What Should I Be Thinking About Now?

There is a tender awareness that washes over you when your beloved pet begins to move more slowly, lingers in longer naps, or gazes at you with eyes that seem...

When Families Disagree About Euthanasia: Navigating Conflict When a Pet Is Suffering - Funeral.com, Inc.

When Families Disagree About Euthanasia: Navigating Conflict When a Pet Is Suffering

When a pet you love is suffering, the question of euthanasia stops being abstract and becomes painfully real. One person looks at the dog who no longer eats and thinks,...

Guilt After Pet Euthanasia: What’s Normal, What Isn’t, and How to Heal - Funeral.com, Inc.

Guilt After Pet Euthanasia: What’s Normal, What Isn’t, and How to Heal

There are few decisions in life as heart-wrenching as choosing euthanasia for a beloved pet. Even when your heart knows that their suffering has become unbearable and that their body...