Some people want to know exactly what will happen to their pet and some would much rather not think about it, and both are entirely normal. This page is for the first group. We are a small family business, and this page from Heavenly Pastures pet cremations is written for the towns of the Wigan borough. What follows is a plain account of the whole thing from the moment we arrive to the moment your companion comes back. We should be clear at the outset that there is nowhere in Wigan you could visit us. The business operates from one crematorium at Burscough, near Ormskirk, and nowhere else.
From Your Door to Ours
The Wigan borough is really a collection of separate towns rather than one place, and a family in Standish, Hindley, Orrell or Platt Bridge will each tell you they live somewhere quite specific. We collect from all of them, along with the town centre and the outlying villages, and we go to your vet as readily as to your house.
When We Arrive
Two of us usually come, in an unmarked vehicle rather than anything that announces itself to the street. Nothing needs to be ready. Your pet does not need to be moved, wrapped or lifted, and if they are in an awkward spot upstairs or in a small back room that is our problem to solve rather than yours. We will give you as long as you want beforehand, and if you would rather be in another room when we come through, that is completely fine and nobody will think anything of it. Some families want to help carry. Some cannot bear to watch. Both happen and both are right.
Identity and How It Is Kept
This is the part people worry about most and ask about least, so it is worth setting out. Your pet is identified from the moment they come into our care and that identification stays physically with them at every stage, including through the cremation itself, on a marker that the process cannot destroy. There is paperwork that travels with them too, recording who they are and who you are. The reason we are so plain about this is that the fear underneath the question is always the same one, and it deserves a straight answer rather than reassurance.
What an Individual Cremation Means Here
An individual cremation service means the chamber holds your pet and no other animal for the duration. Nothing is combined and nothing is separated out afterwards, because there is nothing else in there to separate. That is the whole basis on which we can promise that what comes back to you is your companion. Where the word individual gets used loosely elsewhere in this industry, it sometimes means something rather different, and it is a fair question to put to any provider you speak to.
What a Communal Cremation Means
A communal cremation service is the other option, where several animals are cremated together and no family receives ashes afterwards. It is chosen by plenty of people for reasons that are entirely their own, and it is carried out by the same team with the same care. The one thing that matters is that you know which you have chosen, because it is not reversible. Both are costed openly on the pet cremation price list.
Smaller Animals
The process is no different for a rabbit, a guinea pig, a rat or a hamster, and it is worth saying so because families with small pets are sometimes half expecting to be told their loss counts for less. It does not. A child who has lost a hamster is grieving properly and should be treated as such. Our small pets individual cremation service page covers what is possible with the smallest animals, including the fact that ashes can be returned.
How Long Everything Takes
From collection to ashes coming home is typically a week or two rather than the months some people brace themselves for. We deliver them personally rather than posting them out. If there is a reason you need things sooner, say so when you ring, because it can often be arranged and nobody will mind you asking. Families sometimes have a date in mind, a child coming home from university or a scattering they want to do while the weather holds, and it is far easier for us to work around that than for you to sit worrying about whether it is a reasonable thing to request. It is.
Coming Out to Burscough Instead
You are very welcome to bring your pet to us rather than waiting in. It is a short run from most of the borough. A phone call first helps, simply so somebody is watching for you rather than you arriving to a closed door, but short notice on the day is rarely a problem. There is a chapel of rest and you can take whatever time you need in it. Our page on pet funeral services for families in Wigan sets out both routes, and if it is a dog you are facing losing, the dog cremation service Wigan page goes further into that.
Asking Us Anything
If you have read this far you are probably the sort of person who would rather know than wonder, so ring 01704 776976 and ask whatever is still unanswered. Nothing is too detailed and nothing will be brushed aside. If you would rather put it in writing, the contact form reaches the same small team.