A message from Cham Roth
– Moment of Paws Co-founder
I have been working in the animal medical field for the last 24 years and in doing so, I’ve witnessed thousands of grieving pet parents in their time of loss. Having participated in thousands of farewells at work, I thought I would be prepared when it came time to say goodbye to one of my own. I knew how the “procedure” would go and found comfort in that. But what would come next? When his body was taken away, I was at total loss.
For so many of us, we experience genuine loss of a human family member, we go through a thorough grieving process. Oddly, when we experience genuine loss of a furry family member, we deny ourselves the same thorough grieving process. Often, we hear others around us say things like “he was just a dog” or “just a cat” and our logical side wants to agree, while our emotional side is deeply hurt and even insulted by those words. We think “he wasn’t just a dog. He was part of the family and a true friend.” When we deny ourselves the time or the process of grieving, we are not allowed to achieve closure.
Another Option
Traditionally, pet parents had two options after saying goodbye: group cremation or a private cremation. Group cremation is when dozens of pets are cremated together and ashes are not returned to the family. Private cremation is when a single pet is cremated individually, then ashes are returned to the family. So many of us opt for private cremation and then don’t know what to do with the ashes. Some families have urns lining the fireplace mantle, while others have urns sitting on bookshelves. It wasn’t until I had some of my own pet urns that I realized that I didn’t necessarily want to keep their ashes at home. I merely wanted their ashes returned home. Moment of Paws offers an alternative to keeping pet ashes at home. We are here to help people embrace the grieving process by joining together Pet Parents in saying their final farewells with a dignified ocean burial.
Meet The Crew
Bill Austin
