Losing a pet to death is the most painful experience a fur parent can go through. 

As caretakers, we always prioritize the well-being of our bantays, mingmings, and other pets – making sure that they’re taken care of just like our own family members. It’s never easy, then, when you have to say the inevitable goodbye. 

Not only will you want to give them a proper send-off, but you’ll also want to have something to remember by. While the loss might be a lot to handle and you’re still overcome with grief, we prepared a list of options you could consider to help you mourn the loss of your beloved pet: 

Taxidermy

Defined as the “art of preparing, stuffing, and mounting the skins of animals,” taxidermy gives pet parents the opportunity to preserve their pet’s physical form. 

PetErnity, which has branches in Quezon City and Bulacan, offer taxidermy services for reptiles, mammals, amphibians, birds, and fishes. In their website, they’ve included photos of past projects.

PetErnity promises their customers that they will make their “pets beautiful even after death,” and as long as the preserved pets do not get wet and are given the utmost care, they could last for up to a hundred years. 

Do note that not all deceased animals can undergo this process due to certain complications, which is why PetErnity listed several reminders for people considering taxidermy, such as keeping feathers dry for birds and dipping the bodies of dogs, cats, and other mammals into water with ice. The processing period takes three to four months for small pets, and five to six months for large pets. 

Making a pet replica

Not every fur parent supports taxidermy, though, as many still believe that dead pets should be buried or cremated. Good thing that there are several ways now for deceased pets to be replicated without using the animals’ actual body parts. 

Pampanga Teddy Bear Factory, for example, creates realistic clones of pets without using their real skin. In an interview with Reuters, owner David Tan shared that using 100% stuffed toy materials makes their preservation process less icky than taxidermy services. 

Using synthetic fur, they create life-like replicas of dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits, and other household pets. They also make sure to recreate the actual color and markings of the animals, based on photos sent by the pet owners. 

These plushies, which could be hugged and held by pet parents, could hopefully help grieving owners immortalize the memories of their beloved animals. 

Memorializing your pet’s ashes

One of the most common options for grieving pet parents is to have their fur babies’ ashes cremated. And there are several cremation services that provide additional services to memorialize deceased pets. 

Pet to Nature Philippines, for example, prides themselves in using Aquamation or alkaline hydrolysis technology in their cremation services, meaning the ashes collected are only the mineral remains from the bone, and no other materials are involved in the cremation process. 

They also give customers an option to get their pet’s hair and teeth samples, as well as their paw prints immortalized in clay. There are also several kinds of urns available – from wooden ones to 3D urns, the latter of which can be customized to the features of your pet. 

Pet to Nature also collaborates with artist Marita de Leon to have pet portraits hand-painted directly onto the urns or plant pots. 

Rainbow Bridge is also another cremation center that offers bereaved families memorabilia of their beloved pets that have passed on.

Their services include a wooden urn with a photo frame, a photo print of their pet’s name, a paw clay box, and a lock of hair. Pet owners can also request for additional keepsakes, such as customized paperweights, pendants, and steel capsules.

Rainbow Bridge also offers the Bio-dome Terrarium option, wherein pet owners can get an ecosystem composed of four types of plants, soil with the pet’s ashes, a name marker, and ornamental elements. 

We know that nothing comes close to the agony of losing a beloved pet, but we hope that these practices could, in a way, ease every pet owner’s pain. Are there other practices that you do to memorialize your beloved fur babies? Tell us about them in the comments section.  – Rappler.com