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.

Planting a Tree or Garden in Memory of a Pet

Planting a Tree or Garden in Memory of a Pet

Grief enters quietly when pet loss happens, reshaping the home and the heart in ways few people truly understand. What once felt familiar suddenly carries a new weight: the empty...

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,...

Creating a Memory Box for Your Pet: What to Include

Creating a Memory Box for Your Pet: What to Include

When a beloved pet dies, the silence can feel almost as loud as their bark, purr, or cheerful footsteps once did. The leash hanging by the door, the empty bed...

Honoring a Pet in Your Will or Estate Plan

Honoring a Pet in Your Will or Estate Plan

For many people, a dog, cat, or other companion animal is woven into daily life as deeply as any human family member. You notice it in small routines: the expectant...

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...

Budgeting for End-of-Life Pet Care

Budgeting for End-of-Life Pet Care

When a pet starts to slow down or receives a serious diagnosis, your heart usually reacts long before your bank account does. You might be focused on whether they are...

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...

How to Hold a Pet Memorial Service with Family and Friends

How to Hold a Pet Memorial Service with Family and Friends

There is a kind of silence that settles over a home after a pet dies—a silence made not only of the absence of sound, but of the absence of presence....

Pet Loss and Spiritual Signs: Comforting “Visits” and Symbolic Moments

Pet Loss and Spiritual Signs: Comforting “Visits” and Symbolic Moments

When a beloved dog or cat dies, the silence afterward can feel almost unreal. You might still expect to hear the familiar jingle of a collar, the thump on the...