Sometimes the person arranging the cremation never owned the animal. A parent has gone into a home, or died, and somebody is standing in a house full of belongings trying to work out what happens to a fifteen year old cat who has just died three weeks later. Heavenly Pastures arranges pet cremations for families across Maghull, Lydiate and the surrounding villages, and this situation is far more common than anyone expects. To be clear about the practicalities, we have no local branch in Maghull. There is one crematorium, at Burscough near Ormskirk.
Arranging Things for Somebody Else’s Animal
You do not need to have owned the pet to make the arrangements, and you do not need any particular paperwork or authority. If you are the person dealing with it, you are the person we will deal with. Nobody will ask you to prove anything. That is worth saying because people ring apologetically explaining that the animal was not theirs, half expecting to be turned away, and it makes no difference at all to how the arrangement works.
When the Owner Is Still Alive but Elsewhere
Where somebody has moved into residential care and their animal has died afterwards, the question of whether to tell them is genuinely difficult and families agonise over it. There is no rule. What we would say is that people with dementia frequently retain the animal as a fixed point long after other things have gone, and that being told repeatedly is a fresh loss each time. Families often decide to answer honestly if asked directly and not to raise it otherwise, which seems to be a reasonable middle ground rather than a deception.
Where the Owner Has Died First
Where a pet outlives their owner and then dies not long afterwards, which happens frequently enough that it is almost a pattern, the relatives are grieving two things at once and often barely registering the second. Be a little careful with yourself there. An animal who was your mother’s constant company for years carries a good deal of her with them, and people are frequently blindsided by how hard the cat hits when they thought they had already done the difficult part.
Ashes and Doing Something Together
A question that comes up often is whether ashes can be kept to go with the owner’s, or scattered in the same place at the same time. That is entirely possible and families do it regularly. If a human funeral or interment has not yet taken place, or a scattering is planned for later in the year, ashes can simply be held at home until then. There is no time limit on any of it. If it would help to have somewhere to record both, the Remembrance section of this website is open to you.
The Choice You Are Being Asked to Make
You will need to decide between two things. An individual cremation service keeps the animal on their own throughout and allows their ashes to be returned. A communal cremation service involves several animals together with nothing returned to anybody. If you are acting for somebody else and are unsure what they would have wanted, ashes give you the option of deciding later, whereas the other route closes it. That is worth knowing rather than discovering afterwards. The costs are set out on the pet cremation price list.
Who Pays and Who Decides
Where an estate is involved, families sometimes worry that arranging a cremation before probate is settled creates a problem. It generally does not, and the sums are not of an order that troubles an estate, but if several relatives are involved it is worth a brief conversation between yourselves first so that nobody feels a decision was taken over their head. Disputes about a pet are almost never about the pet. Where a family is already strained by everything else that follows a death, the cat is an easy thing to fall out over and a poor thing to fall out about.
An Animal Nobody Knew Well
Occasionally the person arranging things barely knew the animal, and feels a fraud for not being more upset. That is a perfectly ordinary way to feel and nobody here will expect a performance of grief from you. Equally, if you find yourself unexpectedly in pieces over a cat you met twice, that is because of what the cat represents, and that is ordinary too. Animals belonging to people we have lost become the last living thing that shared the house with them, and their death is often the point at which the larger loss finally lands.
Collection and Getting Here
We collect from houses throughout Maghull and the surrounding area, including from a property that is standing empty, which is a situation we deal with regularly and which needs no explanation from you. What collection costs depends on travel time out from Burscough, and the areas we cover page shows how the bands fall. If you are already clearing the house and making trips anyway, driving the animal over yourself is often simpler than waiting in for us.
Ringing Us
Call 01704 776976 and explain the situation in whatever terms make sense. Nothing about it will be unfamiliar. For a cat specifically, the individual cat cremation service page sets out more, and our contact form is available if writing suits you better.