The things people end up treasuring are almost never the things they planned for. A blurred photograph taken on a phone in a car park turns out to matter more than any of the posed ones. Heavenly Pastures provides pet cremations for families around Bold Heath and the surrounding villages, and this page is about what can be kept and when to think about it. On the practical point, there is no local branch in Bold Heath. Our crematorium is a single site at Burscough, near Ormskirk.
The Things Worth Doing Before
Almost everything on this page is easier to arrange while your animal is still alive, and that is an uncomfortable thing to read if you have already lost them. If you have, most of it is still possible, and nothing here is meant to suggest you have missed your chance. Ring and ask before assuming something is no longer available, because the answer is more often yes than people expect.
Photographs You Will Actually Want
Everybody has hundreds of photographs and almost nobody has the ones they later want. The pictures that matter turn out to be the ordinary ones. Asleep in the usual spot. Mid-yawn. Standing in the hall waiting. Take some now, including the unflattering ones, and take one of the two of you together, because people are almost always behind the camera and then find there is no evidence they were ever there at all. Print one. Files disappear when phones do, and a photograph that exists only in a cloud account is a photograph you may not have in ten years. A short video is worth even more, because what fades first is not the way they looked but the way they moved and sounded.
Paw Prints
These are the thing families ask about most. Your own veterinary practice will often do a print at the time, and it is worth asking in advance rather than in the moment, because it needs doing reasonably promptly. Clay impressions and ink prints are both common. If your animal is still with you and reasonably tolerant, doing one at home is perfectly possible and considerably less fraught than trying to arrange it on the day. Kits are inexpensive and widely available, and doing it on an ordinary afternoon while your animal is warm and irritated by the whole business is a better memory than the alternative.
A Clipping of Fur
A small amount of fur, taken from somewhere unobtrusive, is the simplest thing of all and costs nothing. Families frequently do this themselves at home and are glad of it later. If your pet has already gone and is with us, this is something we can arrange, and it is worth mentioning when you ring rather than afterwards, simply because it becomes difficult once a cremation has taken place. It is a small request and nobody will find it unusual.
Ashes and What Holds Them
Where ashes are being returned, what they come home in is a genuine choice rather than something decided for you. A simple scatter tube suits families who intend to scatter and costs least. A wooden casket with a nameplate is a different thing and suits people who want something permanent on a shelf. Neither is more respectful and nobody here will steer you toward the expensive option. Ashes are brought to you in person rather than posted, which we think matters after a decade in somebody’s house.
Which Route You Choose
All of that assumes ashes are coming back, which depends on the decision you make. An individual cremation service keeps your animal separate throughout, so what returns is theirs alone. A communal cremation service places several animals together and returns nothing to anybody. Families choosing the communal route sometimes assume that rules out having anything to keep, and it does not, because fur, prints and photographs are all still perfectly possible. Costs for both appear on the pet cremation price list.
Things That Cost Nothing
Some of what families value most has no price attached. Writing down the things you would otherwise forget, the specific noise they made at the back door, the exact way they arranged themselves on the sofa. Keeping the collar. A tag with a worn name on it. The Remembrance section of this website is open to you as well, and putting a picture and a few lines there costs nothing at all.
For a Small Animal
People assume prints and clippings are only for dogs. They are not, and a rabbit or a guinea pig can have exactly the same, at a smaller scale. The small pets individual cremation service page explains what can be done for even very tiny animals, ashes included.
Getting to Bold Heath
We collect from the house whenever suits you, or from the vet, and the charge depends on travel time out from Burscough. The areas we cover page shows those bands. Coming over to us yourself is entirely welcome, and some families prefer it precisely because it gives them something to do with a difficult afternoon.
Asking in Advance
Ring 01704 776976 before you need to if your animal is elderly, because arranging these things calmly is far easier than arranging them in tears. Nothing is binding and nobody will press you. The contact form is there if you would rather write it down.