Individual Cremations

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If you’ve decided to have your pet cremated, the last thing you want to hear is that your best friend will be joined by other animals in the cremation chamber. Unfortunately, that can be the case with some pet cremation services – and sometimes it could be worse as some companies will even incinerate pets alongside clinical or general waste.

Thankfully, this isn’t us.

Pawprints Cremation Services offers you and your pet a dignified and personal experience where your wishes for your beloved companion will be followed to a tee. Our individual pet cremations also mean that no matter the size of your pet – from Great Dane to Hamster – there will only ever be one pet in the cremation chamber at any time. We believe that each pet deserves a respectful send-off and cremating each animal individually is the only way to ensure that grieving families are receiving their pet’s ashes alone – something that we will never change.

 

 

We store all pets in our cool room prior to cremation, where they are left peacefully in Pawprints Cremation beds before being moved onto a bespoke stretcher and gently laid in the cremation chamber. We also have an attended service if you wish to see the process and stay with your pet
until the end. Once the cremation is complete, we carefully remove and cool them before they are reduced to ash. They are then placed into a sealed plastic bag and transferred into your choice of container.

Our range of urns, caskets and memorials are all optional but provide a beautiful way to remember your pet. We also have scatter tubes or caskets for burials, photo frames with hidden ash compartments and even jewellery that can contain a small amount of your pet’s remains. When you enquire about our services, we will give you an individual cremation cost which you can add as many additional services to as you wish.

However, there are plenty of options available to you across all of Ireland. Your Vet may even offer you information on their pet cremation provider, but make sure you’re asking the important questions before you agree to go ahead with their service, questions like:
• How will my pet be stored?
• Can my pet be collected from my vet or delivered to my home?
• Can I spend some time with my pet before and after?
• Can I have a full description of the way the procedure is carried out?
• Can I see the cremation, the crematorium and any other part of the process?

 

 

Of course, there are many other questions you may need to ask depending on your individual wishes. Keep in mind that this is your pet and it will be the last time you get to say goodbye to them, so do not agree to anything that you are unhappy with. Ultimately, your personal preference for the service you want for your pet is what matters most. It’s important to say farewell properly and that is the service we offer, no more and no less.

If you’d like to know more about individual pet cremations or, sadly, need to use our services, please get in touch with a member of the Pawprints team on 01 6409901. Otherwise, you can click here where there is plenty of information on each service we offer.

Stages of Grief

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Grief is the catchall term used to describe the five stages that one goes through after having suffered
a loss. Naturally, when you lose a pet you will experience grief just as you would when losing a
human companion. A great analogy I once heard was that grief begins as a large ball in a box with a
button on one of its walls. When the ball is huge (when the grief is fresh) any movement to the box
will cause it to press the button and subsequently hurt you. With the passing of time the ball will
become smaller and will eventually stop pressing the button every time the box is moved.
This period of grief or mourning is a complex and lengthy process that will differ in intensity from
person to person. Today, we’ll look at these five stages in no particular order.

Denial:
Denial can be the first or the last thing someone will experience and refers to the ignoring of a
hurtful event, going so far as to say that it never happened. The mind refuses to believe that which
brings it sadness; rejecting the information. This can manifest in pet owners by them still believing
that their pet is alive.

Anger:
Anger is a common response to loss; the mind floods the body with adrenaline and our fight or flight
response is triggered. It is most commonly associated with a feeling of having been able to prevent
the death or being angry in oneself that more couldn’t be done; of course, this mightn’t always be
the case. Anger is dealt with over time like the rest of these stages.

Bargaining:
If only it could be done… Bargaining is the offering of a trade — the mind offering whatever it thinks
is valuable in exchange for the loss to be reversed or perhaps that by changing an aspect of one’s life
can the departed return. In reality, this can never be done which is why bargaining can quickly lead
to anger or depression.

Depression:
After the shock of death comes the first confrontation to the absence of a pet or loved one. This can
result in physical, behavioural and emotional manifestations (crying, loss of appetite, sleep,
palpitations, fatigue, migraine, aggression, guilt, isolation…) comparable to depression, but a normal phase in the throes of grief.

Finally, Acceptance:
To mourn is to remember a pet for the love they brought into your life. It is accepting their death and learning to live without them. We reorganise, we restructure and we keep going, to get out of that black torpor of pain and to remember the parts of them that we cherished in life.
The loss of a pet is something that you and your children do not have to go through on your own.
Family and friends will always be there for you, to support and help you process it. The loss of a
beloved pet can be one of the most difficult times in our lives.
If someone you know has suffered or is currently suffering the loss of a pet; be there for them, offer
them your support or time to talk and make sure they have no regrets with their pet. It can be just as devastating as losing a family member and there is a grieving process just like any other loss.