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.

When Your Cat Passes Away: What to Do Next (Cremation, Ashes, and Memorial Ideas)

When Your Cat Passes Away: What to Do Next (Cremation, Ashes, and Memorial Ideas)

When a cat dies, the house can feel unfamiliar in a matter of minutes. The quiet is different. The routines that shaped your days—meals, medications, the soft weight on your...

Can You Scatter Pet Ashes Anywhere? Legal and Etiquette Guide for the US & UK

Can You Scatter Pet Ashes Anywhere? Legal and Etiquette Guide for the US & UK

The first time you hold your pet’s cremains, the questions often arrive in a rush. You may have imagined a peaceful goodbye—at the beach they loved, under the tree where...

Pet Memorial Shelf Ideas: Create a Cozy At-Home Tribute with Photos, Urns, and Keepsakes

Pet Memorial Shelf Ideas: Create a Cozy At-Home Tribute with Photos, Urns, and Keepsakes

Grief after losing a pet can feel strangely quiet. The house still holds their routines: the corner where they waited for breakfast, the spot on the couch that somehow stays...

Pet Burial vs. Pet Cremation: Pros, Cons, Costs, and How to Choose

Pet Burial vs. Pet Cremation: Pros, Cons, Costs, and How to Choose

When a pet dies, the world can feel like it narrows to a single, tender question: what now? Most families are not thinking in checklists. They are thinking about the...

Cat Urn Size Guide: How to Choose the Right Cremation Urn for Your Cat

Cat Urn Size Guide: How to Choose the Right Cremation Urn for Your Cat

After a cat dies, the first thing you notice is the quiet. The water bowl stays full. The favorite window spot holds a rectangle of sunlight and nothing else. And...

Where to Keep a Pet Urn at Home: Peaceful Display Ideas (Not Heavy) & Storage Tips

Where to Keep a Pet Urn at Home: Peaceful Display Ideas (Not Heavy) & Storage Tips

After a pet dies, you can do a lot of things “right” and still feel unsure about one very ordinary question: where should the urn live now? It can feel...

How Long Does Pet Grief Last? Signs of Grieving in Dogs and Cats (and How to Help)

How Long Does Pet Grief Last? Signs of Grieving in Dogs and Cats (and How to Help)

If your dog seems to be waiting by the door, or your cat keeps returning to the spot where a companion used to sleep, it can feel like the loss...

When You Have Multiple Pets: How to Help the Surviving Pet Adjust After a Death

When You Have Multiple Pets: How to Help the Surviving Pet Adjust After a Death

In a multi-pet home, grief rarely arrives as a single event. It arrives as a shift in the whole household ecosystem. The quiet where a familiar presence used to be...

Pet Loss After Divorce or Breakup: Who Keeps the Ashes, Keepsakes, and What’s Fair

Pet Loss After Divorce or Breakup: Who Keeps the Ashes, Keepsakes, and What’s Fair

Pet loss can be heartbreaking on its own. When it happens during a divorce or breakup, grief can collide with conflict in a way that feels almost surreal: you are...

Pet Loss Quotes and Readings: Comforting Words for a Memorial or Card

Pet Loss Quotes and Readings: Comforting Words for a Memorial or Card

When a pet dies, the quiet can feel unreal. A food bowl that doesn’t need refilling, a leash that stays on the hook, a familiar spot on the couch that...

Grieving a Cat: How to Cope, Support a Friend, and Help a Surviving Cat

Grieving a Cat: How to Cope, Support a Friend, and Help a Surviving Cat

Grieving a cat can feel strangely private. There is no empty leash by the door, no obvious daily walk to explain the ache. Instead, the loss shows up in small,...

Pet Sympathy Card Messages: What to Write for a Dog or Cat Loss

Pet Sympathy Card Messages: What to Write for a Dog or Cat Loss

When someone loses a pet, the silence that follows can feel strangely loud. The empty food bowl, the leash that still hangs by the door, the spot on the couch...

What to Say When Someone’s Pet Dies: 60 Comforting Messages

What to Say When Someone’s Pet Dies: 60 Comforting Messages

If you are searching for what to say when pet dies, it is usually because you care about someone and you do not want to make their pain worse. You...

Pet Loss and Sibling Dynamics: When One Child Was “Closer”

Pet Loss and Sibling Dynamics: When One Child Was “Closer”

When a family pet dies, it can feel like the whole household shifts—quiet bowls, unused leashes, a favorite sunny spot that suddenly looks empty. For children, that shift can be...

Pet Ashes vs Human Ashes: What’s the Same, What’s Different, and What It Means for Memorials

Pet Ashes vs Human Ashes: What’s the Same, What’s Different, and What It Means for Memorials

When a family chooses cremation—whether for a parent, a partner, or a beloved dog or cat—there’s a moment that can feel unexpectedly heavy. The phone call comes. The container is...

Guilt After Euthanizing a Pet: Why It’s So Common and How to Find Self-Forgiveness

Guilt After Euthanizing a Pet: Why It’s So Common and How to Find Self-Forgiveness

If you chose euthanasia for a pet you deeply loved, you may be surprised by how quickly your mind turns love into accusation. You can know—logically—that you were trying to...