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.

Where to Find Real-Time Help for Pet Loss: Hotlines, Chats, and Online Communities

Where to Find Real-Time Help for Pet Loss: Hotlines, Chats, and Online Communities

The first hours after a pet dies can feel oddly unreal—like your body is going through normal motions while your heart is in a different room entirely. You might be...

Pet Loss and Complicated Grief: When Healing Feels Stuck

Pet Loss and Complicated Grief: When Healing Feels Stuck

Some losses rearrange your whole life quietly. A dog who used to follow you from room to room. A cat who slept against your ribs like a tiny heartbeat. A...

When Your New Pet Brings Up Grief for the One You Lost

When Your New Pet Brings Up Grief for the One You Lost

Bringing a new pet home after a loss can feel like opening a door you’re not sure you’re ready to walk through. On the surface, it may look like a...

Pet Loss in Blended Families: Shared Pets, Shared Grief, and Complicated Emotions

Pet Loss in Blended Families: Shared Pets, Shared Grief, and Complicated Emotions

In a blended family, a pet can become the one relationship that feels uncomplicated—steady affection, familiar routines, a warm body on the couch that doesn’t care whose weekend it is....

Why Losing a Pet Can Trigger Old Grief You Thought Was “Over”

Why Losing a Pet Can Trigger Old Grief You Thought Was “Over”

The day you lose a pet can feel oddly doubled—like you’re grieving the dog or cat in front of you, and also grieving something older that you didn’t expect to...

Keeping Your Pet’s Memory Alive in Everyday Life

Keeping Your Pet’s Memory Alive in Everyday Life

In the first days after a pet dies, memory can feel like a wave—beautiful, relentless, and exhausting all at once. You might catch yourself listening for familiar footsteps, reaching for...

Grieving a Pet While Caring for Surviving Animals: Balancing Their Needs and Yours

Grieving a Pet While Caring for Surviving Animals: Balancing Their Needs and Yours

The day a pet dies, the house doesn’t just get quieter—it changes shape. A water bowl still sits in its usual spot. A leash still hangs by the door. A...

From Foster to Forever in Your Heart: Grieving the Loss of a Foster Pet

From Foster to Forever in Your Heart: Grieving the Loss of a Foster Pet

There’s a particular kind of ache that comes with losing a foster pet—one that can feel oddly “out of place” in the world’s expectations. Your time together may have been...

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

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

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...

How to Talk to Teens About the Death of a Pet Without Minimizing Their Grief

How to Talk to Teens About the Death of a Pet Without Minimizing Their Grief

When a pet dies, adults often expect the grief to look “simple”: a few hard days, a small ritual, a gradual return to normal. But teenagers can surprise you. A...

Comforting Children at a Pet's Euthanasia Appointment

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,...

How to Support Kids When a Classroom Pet Dies

How to Support Kids When a Classroom Pet Dies

The day a classroom pet dies rarely looks dramatic from the outside. The fish doesn’t swim to the surface. The hamster doesn’t come out of its hide. A turtle stays...

How to Send Food to a Grieving Family

How to Send Food to a Grieving Family

In the first days after a death, time does a strange thing. Hours blur, decisions pile up, and even the simplest routines, drinking water, answering a text, heating up a...

How to Build a Support System After Pet Loss

How to Build a Support System After Pet Loss

There’s a particular kind of silence that follows pet loss. It isn’t only the absence of paws on the hallway floor or the familiar weight at the edge of the...

Grieving a Friend: When Your Loss Feels Overlooked or Hard for Others to Understand

Grieving a Friend: When Your Loss Feels Overlooked or Hard for Others to Understand

If you have ever heard yourself say, “I know I’m not family, but this hurts like family,” you are not being dramatic. You are naming something many people live through...