Pet Aftercare & Cremation
Aftercare Options
If you wish for us to provide aftercare, we can take your beloved pet with us after you have had time and privacy to say goodbye. During our water-based cremation process, whether private or communal, we use an identification system that follows your pet all the way through as well as an instruction form to ensure your wishes are followed.
Due to carrying limitations and safety requirements, we need assistance to help carry any pets over 25 pounds. We require pets 70 pounds and over to be on the first floor if we are indoors and providing aftercare, unless your family can carry the stretcher from the upper floors without the doctor’s assistance or if we have help from the cremation service. For pets over 90 pounds, we will require the cremation service to meet us for carrying; this must be arranged prior to the appointment. If you are unable to assist the doctor in carrying your pet between 25 and 90 pounds, we will have the cremation service meet us. Additionally, pets over 120 pounds will require assistance from the family as well as the cremation service. There will be an additional fee if the cremation service meets us for assistance.
You may also choose to make your own arrangements for aftercare such as burial, transport for burial at another location, or working with a cremation service of your choice.
Private Cremation
With this option, your pet is cremated privately at a local licensed crematory. The cremains are returned in a lovely engraved wooden urn (see our available options) or a scattering pouch with a pine sapling. These are usually returned to your primary veterinarian’s office within 7 business days. They can also be made available for pick up at the crematory office (locations in Apex or Sanford) at no charge. Alternatively, for an additional fee, the cremation service can hand-deliver the urn back to your home.
Standard Choice Urns:
- Private Cremation for pets up to 90 pounds: $250
- Private Cremation for pets 91 – 200 pounds: $350 (includes transport assistance)
Cherry MDF Urn
Tree of Life Urn
Scattering Pouch
Biodegradable Urn & Tree Sapling
Special Order Urns:
Cherry MDF and Dark Cherry MDF Engraved with Photo Slot Urn:
Please specify which shade of urn you would like. The crematory will contact you about the sizing, direction, and placement of the urn for engraving purposes.
- Private Cremation for pets up to 90 pounds: $300
- Private Cremation for pets 91 – 200 pounds: $400 (this includes transport assistance)
Dark Cherry MDF Photo Urn
Cherry MDF Photo Urn
Bamboo Engraved Urn:
- Private Cremation for pets up to 60 pounds: $300
- Private Cremation for pets 61 – 90 pounds: $320
- Private Cremation for pets 91 – 200 pounds: $420 (includes transport assistance)
Bamboo Urn
Companah Pet Cremation can also provide other urns than those shown above, as well as other memorial items. (These other items will need to be purchased directly through Companah. Please see their website for more information.)
Communal Cremation
This option is for families who do not wish to have their pet’s ashes returned or to bury them at home. Pets are respectfully cremated with other pets, and the ashes are scattered on the Pamlico River.
- Communal Cremation for pets up to 90 pounds: $150
- Communal Cremation for pets 91 – 200 pounds: $250 (includes transportation assistance)
We Partner With Companah Pet Cremation Service
Our partnership with Companah Pet Cremation offers an environmentally responsible way to bid farewell to your furry friend. Their water cremation process ensures minimal environmental impact while providing your pet with a gentle and respectful goodbye. This procedure, also called alkaline hydrolysis, reflects our commitment to providing exceptional care, respecting your beloved companion’s memory and our planet.
Companah is a small business founded by Hal and Shannon Atkins. They are excited to have brought technology that will significantly reduce the environmental impact of traditional cremation methods while returning a better overall result to your family.
Hal and Shannon have always enjoyed having dogs and cats as a part of their family, experiencing the joy of their companionship and knowing full well the pain of their loss. They recognize that the first experiences of grief and loss for young children often occur around the death of a family pet.
At the heart of the Companah process is green cremation, an impressive scientific advancement that reduces our environmental impact while returning a lovely outcome. Utilizing alkaline hydrolysis, the process is more like natural decomposition than any other method of disposition. They use a gentle water flow, alkalinity, and warm water to accelerate the breakdown of organic matter. A process that would naturally take months or years is reduced to less than a day. During that time, a combination of 95% warm water and 5% alkali gently rushes over the body.
Why Choose Water Cremation?
- A much gentler option
- Mimics the natural process of decomposition
- More of your beloved pet’s remains are retained and available to be returned to you in an urn or scattering pouch
- If you choose not to have the remains returned, they are scattered in the Pamlico River.
At the end of the cremation process, your companion’s physical components have been returned to their natural elements and dispersed in water. Afterward, only solid bone remains, free of pathogens and disease. In fact, viruses and even chemicals such as cytotoxic drugs (e.g., chemotherapy drugs) are broken down into basic nutrient elements, rendering them non-toxic. The mineral bone ash is returned in an urn to those who request take-home remains. The water byproduct, known as effluent, is not only benign but also beneficial. When returned to the environment, effluent is shown to improve municipal water systems. The effluent may also be used as a natural, chemical-free fertilizer.
Water cremation is a method that:
- Produces zero harmful greenhouse gas emissions
- Uses low energy outputs
- Creates 1/10 of the carbon footprint compared to flame-based cremation
Our Veterinary Services
In-Home Veterinary Hospice
& Palliative Care Consultation
In-Home
Euthanasia
Pet Aftercare
& Cremation