Almost every family who loses a pet through their vet is asked to make a decision about cremation within a few minutes of the worst news they have had all year, and almost nobody knows beforehand that the decision is theirs to make. Heavenly Pastures is an independent, family-run provider of pet cremations looking after families throughout Preston and the surrounding Lancashire villages. We should say plainly that we hold no premises in Preston at all. Everything happens at our single crematorium in Burscough, near Ormskirk, roughly half an hour down the road, and we come to you.
How Cremation Usually Gets Arranged Through a Vet
Most veterinary practices have a standing arrangement with a cremation provider. It is a sensible arrangement and it exists for good reasons, because someone has to be able to take care of things immediately and a grieving family in a consulting room is in no state to be researching options. The form gets put in front of you, you tick a box, and it is dealt with. For a great many people that is exactly what they want and there is nothing wrong with it.
The Choice Most Families Do Not Realise They Have
What often is not said, because there is rarely a good moment to say it, is that you are entitled to use whoever you wish. A practice will generally be perfectly willing to release your pet to a provider you have chosen, or to hold them for a short while until that provider arrives. Families sometimes discover this weeks afterwards and feel a real pang about it, particularly if they had wanted ashes back and did not understand what they had agreed to. That conversation reaches us fairly often, and it is a sad one to have after the fact rather than before.
Worth Asking Before You Sign Anything
If you have time, three questions are worth asking at the desk. Ask which provider the practice uses and where they are based, because some are a considerable distance away. Ask whether the option in front of you returns ashes, and how the practice can be certain that the ashes coming back are your pet’s. Ask how long it will take. None of this is rude and no reasonable practice will mind being asked. If you would rather not ask at all, you can simply say you have made your own arrangements and give them our name.
Arranging Things Before an Appointment
Where a decision has been made in advance and an appointment is booked, there is a real kindness in getting the cremation settled a day or two beforehand. It means that on the day itself there is no form, no choice to make, and no stranger asking you anything while you are barely able to speak. You can ring us before the appointment, tell us what you would like, and we will simply be there afterwards. Families who have done it this way almost always say afterwards that it was the one part of the week that did not hurt.
When There Was No Warning
Plenty of pets die at home with no appointment and no preparation, often overnight or over a weekend when the practice is closed. If that is where you are, there is nothing you need to have organised and nothing that has gone wrong. Our page on the cremation service following natural death sets out what actually needs to happen in the first hours, which is far less than most people fear.
Understanding Individual and Communal Cremation
The choice itself comes down to two things. An individual cremation service means your pet is cremated alone and their ashes are returned to you, and only theirs. A communal cremation service means your pet is cremated alongside other animals and ashes are not returned to anyone. Both are done with the same care. The important thing is that you understand which one you have chosen, because it cannot be undone afterwards, and a tick in the wrong box on a busy afternoon is a mistake that stays with people. Costs for each are set out on the pet cremation price list rather than being something you have to ask about while upset. If you are weighing up what happens with a cat in particular, our individual cat cremation service page goes into more detail.
Collection Across Preston and the Villages
We collect from homes throughout Preston and from the surrounding areas, from Fulwood and Penwortham out to Longridge, Bamber Bridge and the villages along the Ribble. We will also collect from your veterinary practice if that is where your pet has passed, which spares you having to move them or go back for them. Collection is charged according to travel time from Burscough rather than as a single flat fee, so it is worked out honestly against where you actually live, and the areas we cover page shows how those bands fall. There is an out-of-hours service too, at additional cost, for the evenings and weekends when so much of this tends to happen.
Coming to Burscough
You are also very welcome to bring your pet to us instead. It is a straightforward run from Preston and there is a chapel of rest when you arrive, with time to sit rather than being moved along. Ring ahead where you can so that we are ready for you, though we can usually manage short notice on the same day if that is what the situation demands. Our Preston pet cremations page sets out both routes in full.
If You Want to Talk It Through
Ring 01704 776976 whenever you are ready, including before any decision has been made, and including simply to ask what your options would be. Nobody will push you toward anything. If speaking aloud is beyond you today, which it often is, our contact form will reach us just as surely.