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.

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...

Handling Social Invitations and Events in Early Grief: Saying No, Saying Yes, and Changing Your Mind

Handling Social Invitations and Events in Early Grief: Saying No, Saying Yes, and Changing Your Mind

In early grief, invitations can feel oddly loud. A text lights up your phone, a calendar invite lands in your inbox, a friend asks, “Are you coming?”, and suddenly you’re...

Grief and Holidays for Blended and Multi-Household Families: Scheduling, Traditions, and Fairness

Grief and Holidays for Blended and Multi-Household Families: Scheduling, Traditions, and Fairness

Holidays have a way of making grief louder. Even in uncomplicated families, a first Thanksgiving chair that stays empty, a stocking that doesn’t get filled, or a familiar voice missing...

Changing Breeds: Why Switching Might Help Your Grief

Changing Breeds: Why Switching Might Help Your Grief

In the first quiet days after a dog dies, many people discover that grief isn’t only sadness. It’s habit. It’s the sound your body expects to hear at the door,...

Comparing the New Puppy to the Old Dog: How to Stop

Comparing the New Puppy to the Old Dog: How to Stop

There’s a moment many families don’t expect after bringing home a new puppy: you’re standing in the kitchen, the water bowl clinks, a tail thumps against the cabinet—and your mind...

Fostering After Loss: A Bridge Between Grief and Ownership

Fostering After Loss: A Bridge Between Grief and Ownership

The first quiet after a pet dies can feel like a new kind of silence—one that follows you from room to room. You might still pause at the cabinet where...

Why Pet Loss Hits Harder for Single People

Why Pet Loss Hits Harder for Single People

When you live alone with a pet, your home doesn’t just contain your life—it organizes it. The rhythm of your mornings, the shape of your evenings, the reason you go...

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...

It’s Just a Cat: How to Handle Insensitive Comments from Friends

It’s Just a Cat: How to Handle Insensitive Comments from Friends

The comment rarely lands gently. You might be standing in the grocery store aisle, moving on autopilot because you ran out of coffee filters. You might be at work, answering...

Senior to Puppy: The Shock of Raising a Baby After Caring for a Senior

Senior to Puppy: The Shock of Raising a Baby After Caring for a Senior

When you’ve spent months (or years) caring for an elderly dog, your life quietly reshapes itself around gentler things: slower walks, softer food, medication schedules, and the way you learn...

Adopting After Loss: Dealing with the Fear of Losing Another

Adopting After Loss: Dealing with the Fear of Losing Another

The first time you consider adopting again after a profound pet loss, the fear doesn’t usually announce itself with drama. It arrives quietly, disguised as “being responsible,” as “doing more...

Introducing a New Pet to a Grieving Pack: Timing and Territory

Introducing a New Pet to a Grieving Pack: Timing and Territory

The first time you notice it, it’s something small. A dog who used to sprint to the door when you picked up the leash now lifts their head, pauses, and...

Are You Ready for a New Dog? 7 Signs You’re Not (And Why That’s Okay)

Are You Ready for a New Dog? 7 Signs You’re Not (And Why That’s Okay)

There’s a moment after losing a dog when the house feels unnaturally quiet. You still pause, expecting to hear paws on the floor, or glance at the corner where they...

Grieving a Pet While Living Alone: Filling the Silence With Compassion

Grieving a Pet While Living Alone: Filling the Silence With Compassion

Living alone while grieving a pet creates a uniquely quiet form of loss because the relationship was woven into the physical fabric of daily life. Pet loss in solitude changes...

The Rebound Pet: Why You Shouldn’t Get a Lookalike

The Rebound Pet: Why You Shouldn’t Get a Lookalike

When a beloved dog dies, there is often a moment when your heart whispers a dangerous little wish: If I could just find another one exactly like them, maybe this...

How to Bond with a New Pet When Your Heart Is Still Broken

How to Bond with a New Pet When Your Heart Is Still Broken

Grief has a way of soaking into the walls of a home. The empty bed in the corner, the worn spot on the couch, the way you still catch yourself...