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.

How to Support a Partner After a Pet Loss: Different Grief Styles, Same Love

How to Support a Partner After a Pet Loss: Different Grief Styles, Same Love

Some companions leave paw prints not just on your home, but on your heart. They are part of your routines, your quiet moments, your laughter, and even your challenges. When...

Parents Losing the Family Pet: Making Space for Their Grief Too

Parents Losing the Family Pet: Making Space for Their Grief Too

The loss of a family pet ripples through every corner of a household, touching hearts in ways that words can scarcely capture, yet parents’ grief often goes quietly unseen and...

Helping Children Understand the Death of a Pet: Gentle Words That Help

Helping Children Understand the Death of a Pet: Gentle Words That Help

A beloved pet is more than a companion, they are a constant presence, a listener, a playmate, and a source of comfort. When a pet passes away, it can shake...

Explaining a Pet’s Death to Other Pets in the Home

Explaining a Pet’s Death to Other Pets in the Home

The quiet hits first. The spot where they used to curl up is empty. The soft padding of paws that once echoed through your home is gone. The routines that...

Cleaning the House After a Pet Dies: Grief, Messes, and Making Space for Memory

Cleaning the House After a Pet Dies: Grief, Messes, and Making Space for Memory

Your home carries the echoes of countless shared moments: the soft shuffle of paws across the floor, a sunbeam warmed by a curled-up body, a favorite toy tucked under the...

How to Write a Pet Eulogy: Honoring Their Life in Words

How to Write a Pet Eulogy: Honoring Their Life in Words

There comes a moment in grief when silence becomes too heavy, and your heart begins reaching for language, not because words can heal loss, but because your love feels too...

Where Do Dogs Go When They Die? Comforting Answers for Grieving Pet Parents

Where Do Dogs Go When They Die? Comforting Answers for Grieving Pet Parents

When a dog dies, the whole rhythm of home changes. The house seems too quiet, the corner where their bed used to sit feels strangely bare, and your hand may...

Compassion Fatigue and Pet Loss: When Rescuers and Shelter Workers Are Grieving

Compassion Fatigue and Pet Loss: When Rescuers and Shelter Workers Are Grieving

If you work in rescue, animal control, or a shelter, grief rarely comes as a single event. It arrives in waves—sick kittens who do not make it through the night,...

Why Pet Loss Feels So Lonely (and How to Find People Who Truly Get It)

Why Pet Loss Feels So Lonely (and How to Find People Who Truly Get It)

When a pet dies, the world often looks the same from the outside, but feels unrecognizably different on the inside. You still go to work, answer emails, pay bills, and...

How Long Does Pet Loss Grief Last? What Research and Real Stories Suggest

How Long Does Pet Loss Grief Last? What Research and Real Stories Suggest

When a beloved pet dies, time can feel strange. Some days the loss is sharp and raw, as if it happened this morning. Other days you move through work and...

Coping with the Loss of a Pet: Grief Stages, Rituals, and When to Seek Support

Coping with the Loss of a Pet: Grief Stages, Rituals, and When to Seek Support

When a pet dies, the whole rhythm of home changes. The quiet by the food bowl, the empty spot on the couch, the way you still half-expect the jingle of...

Pet Loss and Mental Health: Anxiety, Depression, and When to Seek Extra Support

Pet Loss and Mental Health: Anxiety, Depression, and When to Seek Extra Support

If you are grieving a pet and also noticing your anxiety or depression getting worse, you are not “too sensitive,” and you are not alone. For many people, losing a...

Do Pets Go to Heaven? How Different Religions and Traditions Answer the Question

Do Pets Go to Heaven? How Different Religions and Traditions Answer the Question

When a pet dies, the questions that rise first are rarely technical ones about cremation urns or memorial options. They are tender, aching questions like, “Where are they now?” and “Will...

Cultural Views on Pet Death Around the World

Cultural Views on Pet Death Around the World

When a pet dies, grief can feel raw and immediate no matter where you live. Yet the way that grief is expressed, acknowledged, or even allowed is deeply shaped by...

Healing Rituals for the First 30 Days After a Pet Dies

Healing Rituals for the First 30 Days After a Pet Dies

When a pet dies, time does not move in neat calendar blocks. The first 30 days after a pet dies can feel both endless and blurred—mornings without a familiar routine,...

Giving Away Pet Items: When to Hold On and When to Let Go

Giving Away Pet Items: When to Hold On and When to Let Go

Sometime after a pet dies, there is a quiet moment when you open the closet, or walk past the food bowl, and realize that their things are still exactly where...