< Coleen Ellis is. interview by Susan Loving ICFM SUBJECT SPOTLIGHT

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1 interview by Susan Loving ICFM SUBJECT SPOTLIGHT P E T F U N E R A L S Is there a market for pet funeral homes? Coleen Ellis believes there is. Her Pet Angel Memorial Center is not a funeral home that runs a pet crematory on the side. It s not a pet crematory that offers some pet memorialization products. It s a funeral home for pets, period. Ellis focus is not on disposition but on helping the bereaved owners of dogs, cats, birds, rats, iguanas and every other creature large and small mourn losses and celebrate lives. coleen_ellis@petangel memorialcenter.com memorialcenter.com < Coleen Ellis is owner and operator of Pet Angel Memorial Center, Carmel, Indiana, which she opened in August 2004, after dealing with the death of Mico, with whom she is pictured above. The photo appears on her < brochure. She had worked for Forethought, Batesville, Indiana, since MORE ABOUT THIS SUBJECT Ellis will be one of four panelists for a three-hour symposium on pet funerals, cremation and memorialization at the ICFA Convention in Las Vegas, March Check your on-site program for time and location. Pet Angel Memorial Center President Coleen Ellis with her four-legged babies: Mike,10, a golden retriever who models for Pet Angel brochures; Crisco, 3, a Yorkie-Chihuahua mix, as best as I can tell ; and Ellie Mae, 18 months, probably a mix of border collie and flat-coat retriever. Ellie Mae will be going through training to become a grief therapy dog. I wasn t going to do it, Ellis says, but I had way too many families asking to have a dog present. Ellie comes in to work with me sometimes. She knows to go over and sit by people and let them pet her, and if she thinks they re crying too much, she ll go get a toy and bring it over to them to see if a toy makes them feel better. Photo by Corso Photography Helping pet owners say goodbye Americans today have fewer children but more pets, and they love those pets. They spent an estimated $35.9 billion on them in 2005, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. Health care, food, clothing, toys, Christmas presents, birthday presents, day care, boarding kennels it all adds up to a booming retail sector of the economy dedicated to helping people treat their pets almost as well if not better than they treat their human companions. The American Pet Association reported in 2003 that more than half of all dog owners say they are as attached to their dogs as they are to at least one of the following: best friend, child or spouse. But what happens when it s time for the final goodbye? Pet owners are woefully underserved, says Coleen Ellis, who plans to revolutionize how bereaved pet owners are treated, starting at her Pet Angel 12 International Cemetery&Funeral Management Go to for one-click access to advertisers

2 Demitria the Chihuahua checks out Joe and Linda Budzinski s ferret, Daisy, who seems unconcerned about the scrutiny. Daisy died recently; a service was held at home. Don t try to tell people what is and is not a pet A t Pet Angel Memorial, most of the bereaved pet owners are mourning cats or dogs. It goes in spurts. One week we re picking up more cats, the next week, more dogs, says Pet Angel President Coleen Ellis. But I also have my fair share of rats, birds, bunnies and guinea pigs. I haven t had a snake yet. Ellis doesn t limit the types of animals Pet Angel will deal with. She can t handle a horse removal herself, but she knows where to go to get it taken care of, and anything smaller is no problem. If I can handle a 240-pound mastiff, I can certainly handle a 120-pound llama or a 10-pound chicken or whatever the case may be, she says. My comment to people is, Far be it from me to tell you what s a pet and what s not a pet. We have rocks and little river stones we can put animals pictures on, and I had a lady come in here for one of the rocks. They had named a buck they saw on their property, and he died. We took a rock and put Abner s name on it with a clip art drawing of a buck deer. I ve got a family right now with four kids, a girl and three boys. They re a rat family. A few months ago, the mom called and said her daughter s rat had died and her daughter wanted to come to Pet Angel. She wanted to have her brothers come in and say a few words, and have Squeeky cremated and put in a little urn. The mom said, I m not sure what I m going to do about spending money on this, but my daughter s getting her allowance money together. I said, You know what, whatever her allowance money is, that s what it s going to cost. We re on our third rat now. The parents bring them in and we go through the same process every time. I caution people dealing with grieving pet owners not to put limits on families. Don t try to tell families what should be important to them. Because I tell you, if they love that iguana, they love that iguana. Memorial Center, a funeral operation dedicated to serving pet owners. Like many business ideas, hers was born of a combination of professional and personal experience. She had been with Forethought since 1990, consulting with funeral homes all over the country on their preneed programs, working with counselors and going into homes to talk to families about creating life celebrations. She believed in the value of funeral service. Ellis had a child she loved dearly, Mico. The fact that Mico walked on four legs and had fur didn t make her human mother any less devoted to her. When Mico died, Ellis wanted a chance to reflect on the joy Mico had brought to her life. She wanted a chance to mourn her loss. And she wanted her profound grief to be treated with respect. What she wanted was for someone to treat her the way a good funeral director would treat any bereaved person. But that s not what she got. Ellis recalls being told to come in the back door of the funeral home, and to sit at the back of the chapel and leave the lights off so that no one would notice her there, cradling Mico s body. Now, come on, Ellis says. Do you think I felt special? Do you think I felt like I was being treated with respect and my baby was being treated with respect? So you could say that starting Pet Angel Memorial Center was Ellis way of memorializing her beloved Mico. If the testimonials Ellis gets from clients are any indication, Ellis is meeting her goal of providing for other bereaved pet owners what she sought in vain. Having customers who spread the word about her services to their friends and who routinely check the value of the services was far greater than the price I paid box on her follow-up surveys make her believe she s got a winning business formula, as well, one she plans to spread all over the country via licensing agreements. A lot of people in your situation would maybe have created a Web site listing pet grief resources as a way to help others going through something similar. What made you think a pet funeral home would be a viable business? Coming from the human funeral business, when my four-legged child passed away, it was disturbing to me that I wasn t able to find anybody who was going to handle her like I was used to handling people in a death situation. I felt the process needed to be brought up to date. Today our pets are more to us than just animals. They may be friends, children, members of the family these are all words I hear. I saw a disconnect between the way we feel about our pets and the way I was treated when my little girl died. So I made a decision at that point that I wanted a little funeral home specifically designed for pets. I did some research, and the closest facility I could find that was operating the way I wanted to was in the UK. But I finally decided I shouldn t be concerned about that. It s not as if I would be going into this without experience. I had funeral home experience. I knew what the facility needed to look like. I knew what casket displays and urn displays looked like. I knew I needed a chapel and a visitation room. I did have to think, Is this viable? And it was a little bit scary to think about being the first one in the United States to operate this way. So I had to decide I would be OK with people looking at me and saying, A funeral home for dogs? Have you lost your mind? But I also knew in my heart of hearts there were going to be a lot more people who feel the way I do about pets, and that they would get it. And coming from a statistical viewpoint, when you look at the numbers on pet ownership and on what people are spending on their pets, it makes sense. This is a need that s not been filled, and it wasn t a matter of whether something like this would or would not be offered eventually, it was just a matter of when. So it wasn t a problem getting the financing you needed? No, absolutely not. Now, of course, they were a little hesitant, because they said, You re a startup, you ve got a brand new concept. But with my marketing background, my husband s marketing background (her husband is Chris Burke, former vice president of sales and marketing for Forethought), our experience in sales and funeral service, all of it made complete sense. What makes what you re doing different? First of all and this is what I ve told many, many funeral directors who have called me about what I m doing is the fact that a lot of human funeral homes treat pet owners like the little kids who are asked to sit at the small table at Thanks- 14 International Cemetery&Funeral Management Go to for one-click access to advertisers

3 Pet Angel Memorial Center is set up to make people and pets comfortable. Though the interior has an upscale look, the flooring is made for easy clean-up when an animal visitor has an accident. Photo by Corso Photography ICFM SUBJECT SPOTLIGHT <Pet Angel Memorial Center is located in a five-shop retail strip mall, chosen because of its high traffic and easy-to-find location. Pet Angel occupies 1,200 square feet. <Coleen Ellis works there full time; stepson Brian Burke is a part-time employee. Ellis mother-in-law, Nancy Burke, helps her make some of the custom merchandise. (See photos, pages 22 and 23.) <The front door opens onto the gallery area, where products are displayed. Though urns are for deceased pets, of course, most other products appeal to owners of living pets as well, including portraits, jewelry that can be personalized with an animal s picture, sculptures, upscale frames and food bowls. <Past the gallery area is the chapel, with movable benches that can be set up formally for a service or placed in a circle for a support group. <In the back is a Brian Burke, Ellis stepson and a part-time employee of Pet Angel, with his dog, Rezi. One of Ellis brochures, featuring her golden retriever, Mike. private family room, a private office, bathrooms and a storage area. <Pet Angel handles cremations for service dogs free (urns are extra). <Pet Angel hosts a holiday memorial service similar to the ones held at many funeral homes. It s a full afternoon, Ellis said. I ve got all the pets on an ornament; we have three trees to handle all of them. I cover a table with butcher paper and line up candles on it. giving. If we have time for you today, you can drop your deceased kitty off here. Or it can be like what happened to me when we took Mico to a human funeral home and they said, You can come over, but use the back door don t come in the front. There s a reason the PetCos and PetSmarts of the world are doing as well as they are, and it s because people with pets like to go to places designed for pets. It doesn t matter to me if you show up to my front door with a deceased doggie in your arms, because I don t have to worry about the Smith family, who hates animals, being here for their mother s visitation. Number two, we answer the phone 24/7, just like a human funeral home. If we get a call at 3 a.m., we go and get that deceased animal. That s our mission, and we re all animal lovers. If a regular funeral home gets a call at 3 a.m. and the person on duty doesn t like animals and has to do the pick-up, that s not going to do your business any good. Third, I understand pet grief, and when you come here, I m not going to ask you to rank your grief. No one here is going to say, There s a family next door who just lost a human family member, so your grief really should be secondary because they lost a human family member and you just lost your dog. Your grief is huge, and we re going to acknowledge it. I m not going to tell you that your grief for that animal that was your best friend isn t as important as someone else s grief for a human family member. This is a safe place to mourn your pet. There was a television special a few months ago called Pet Nation. Al Roker spent 90 minutes talking to people about the things they re doing for their pets. There was a couple and their little Yorkie terrier, Woody, that he kept going back to during the whole show. He talked about all kinds of things, and about 30 seconds total was devoted to the death-care side. He asked Woody s mom if she s ever thought about what s going to happen when he dies, and she basically said, Nope, don t want to think about it. Next question. So this 90-minute show devoted 30 seconds to something I know no one wants to think about, but we all got the memo: It s going to happen; your pet is going to die someday. You don t have to have a birthday party for your doggie and you don t have to buy him clothes, but you have to deal with 16 International Cemetery&Funeral Management Go to for one-click access to advertisers

4 his death. And what are you going to do when that time comes? With what I do, it s not an if, it s a when, so that s another reason that from a business strategy standpoint what I m doing made total sense to me. Do you think that someone who doesn t genuinely like animals could work at a pet funeral home? No, because it would come across in a New York second. If you don t love pets, you don t handle their bodies the same way, and you can t relate to owners about missing the pitter-patter of feet, or the jingle-jangle of tags or the little silly things that pets do. I suppose there could be someone out there who could fake it, but I ll tell you, the first question families always ask me is, Tell me about your pets, or How many pets do you have at home now? And the fact that I have pets, and I lost a pet, establishes common ground immediately. They know that I ve been there. It seems like people either like animals or they don t, and neither group understands the other. That s right. And I m fine with someone else not being an animal person, but do I understand it? No. Do they understand me? No. I ve had people ask me whether anyone looks at me funny when they hear I operate a funeral home for animals, and I say, You know what, who cares? The people who get it, get it, and that s what I m about. I can t appeal to the masses. What percentage of people in this country have a pet? More than 60 percent of all households. But what s more interesting to me is that 83 percent of the people who have pets refer to themselves as Mommy or Daddy in relation to their pets. So it pretty much is the masses. And you have $35 billion being spent on pets each year, but end-of-life is an area that hasn t been addressed. What was your grand opening like? Did you have a lot of people there? This was an area where I didn t do as well as I could have. We did a mailer to veterinarians to invite them, and advertised at veterinarians offices for families to come, but I didn t get as many people as I wanted. I think people were just not quite sure what we were. Some pet lovers came to find out, but others held back. We did have the Carmel Chamber of Commerce there, and the media. My advertising agency did a pitch to the press, and every television station, radio station, newspaper or magazine we pitched to followed up. So right out of the gate, we were on every TV station in the city. One of the stations has local a celebrity who s known for his dog, who goes with him on all his shoots, so of course they were a natural to cover the opening. I was on a couple of radio stations and we were in every newspaper. We ve been featured in an article on pet loss in Indianapolis Pet Quarterly, and I was one of three businesswomen profiled recently in an Indianapolis Woman article on pet-related businesses. How long after you opened did you have your first funeral? My first funeral service didn t happen until November after our August opening; we ve had maybe a half dozen funerals in our first 15 months. But the first family we worked with came in two days after we opened, and we ve served about 370 families in some way, even if it s just us taking care of the cremation for them. Some of them have a family time with their pets; the majority don t. But they call me because they know that if they want someone who will understand and will help them through this time, they should call Pet Angel. So most people don t need their friends to come to a funeral for their pet, they just need somebody to validate what they re feeling. And that s exactly what happens. A week after I serve a family, I send out a family satisfaction survey, which is where the testimonials on my Web site come from. I want to know where we did a good job and what we need to change. The two things I almost always get back are: 1. Thank you for helping me through this time and not making me feel like I was crazy, and 2. They check the value of services I received far outweighed the price I paid. It s not about my facility. It s not about the urns I carry, or the caskets. It s not about any of that stuff, it s about the one thing that everyone should use to separate themselves from the next person: Our services. So it s not holding funeral services per se, it s the other things you do that form the core of this type of business? Absolutely. I do think the funeral side is going to grow, but I ve got to keep in mind that it s still a new concept, so people are saying, Gosh, I didn t know I could do that. What is starting to happen more and more is family visitations. For example, I went to a house last night and picked up a pet and I told momma, Why don t you go to bed tonight with the peace of mind of knowing that you can come in tomorrow and spend a little more time with him. to page 18 Personalized cards provide a way for the family to let others know about a pet s death or, as in this case, serve the same function as memorial folders at human funeral homes. Ellis also creates cards for happy occasions, such as the adoption of a new pet. For the latest news from around the world, go to and click on News Page March-April

5 Coleen Ellis comforts a client at Pet Angel Memorial Center. Photo by Corso Photography I do post-service like nobody s business. When a family loses a pet, I m on the phone with that family every day until I feel they re going to be OK. Coleen Ellis Ellis newsletter for clients. The lead story in this issue is, Do Surviving Pets Grieve? She has been printing it quarterly, but says that with the growth in her business she will probably need to cut back to two newsletters this year. from page 17 I tell families there s a reason for visitations and funerals. They give you time to see the deceased, to say your goodbyes, do what you need to do to begin the process of closure. To have a pet whisked away from a veterinary clinic or a home and not give people that option of coming to see their baby again before cremation I don t believe in that, at all. We have vets we work with who will do home euthanasias. We ll go to the home and try to be a part of the process to help the family through it. A lot of times the husbands want to leave the room because they can t handle it, so you ve got the poor wife in there trying to deal with it by herself, and again, I don t believe in that. Somebody needs to be there for them. If we re given enough notice, we always meet the family there to be with them and help them through that time. A lot of parents have no idea what to tell children about death. I can t tell you how many times I heard in funeral homes, Grandma s sleeping. That s why I tell parents, Bring your kids in here and let me talk to them. I m not sure what some of these parents are going to do when they re supposed to talk to their kids about sex! I can think of so many instances when we had the baby in here and I encouraged the family to bring the kids in and let them see the pet one more time and say goodbye. I tell them to have the kids write letters, because we re going to read our letters together, and have the kids bring in the pet s favorite toy or treat, and we re going to talk all about the baby when they come in. When they come in here, I go over and I m the first one to start petting the animal, so they can see it s OK. Then I ll walk away and give them some alone time, and next thing you know they re petting and hugging the baby. And I tell you what, those mothers call the next day and say, Oh, my gosh, that was a huge help. Do you get much walk-in traffic? Yes a lot. A lot of people come in to shop for merchandise. They come for markers for an animal they ve buried at home. They come to look for urns, because I have 120 in stock and I m listed in the phone book. Some people show up at my door with a deceased animal in their arms. And they show up with what I lovingly call the look, and I ask, What s deceased and where is it? Do you have any people preplanning? Yes, and I encourage them to do that. I tell them when you ve already got arrangements in place, it ll make it a lot easier on you on a bad, bad day. Earlier today I did a training session at a vet clinic for about 20 of their folks on positioning of our services. I encouraged them to give people whose pets are elderly or in bad health my brochure and tell them to call me. I ve had some prefunds on file for maybe a few months now. We had one doggie where we had everything planned ahead, including how he should be positioned for the visitation and what toys would be there. What were the half-dozen funeral services that have been held like? A couple were for single women whose pets were their children. There were people present. So non-family members come to these services? Yes, they do. When I first opened, a reporter asked me, Gosh, Coleen, how do you call up your friends and say, Will you come to a visitation for my dog? or Will you come to a funeral service for my cat? People are going to think you re weird. And I said, You don t call them up and say that. What you say is, I ve had a loss in my life. You know how important Fluffy was to me, and I need your support right now, for you to come be with me. If they re your friends, what are they going to do, say no? A couple of the services were for doggies that were sort of mascots for local humane societies. We had about three dozen people at both of those services. And there was the service in August 2005 for Arco the K-9 officer killed in the line of duty, which probably drew 300 people, including K-9 forces from all over the state. We didn t bring the dogs into the room, but their human partners were there, sitting right behind the family. Arco was the third police dog killed in the line of duty since they ve had the local K-9 force, so we honored all three with tributes, but the service was specifically for Arco. The service was exactly like it would be for any fallen officer, meaning there was an honor guard who saluted his portrait and sat at attention with their rifles. Taps was played, a bagpiper played Amazing Grace. The television coverage was very, very cool, all the way from a shot of a little Boy Scout signing the register book to the playing of Taps. And I tell you, there wasn t a dry eye in the house for that service. Did you contact the Police Department or did they contact you about holding the service for Arco? They contacted me. The night Arco was killed, it was big news, so a local radio station put me on the air for 30 minutes for a call-in show about pet death and about the fact that an officer had been killed. He was 18 International Cemetery&Funeral Management Go to for one-click access to advertisers

6 The service Coleen Ellis arranged for Arco, a K-9 officer killed in the line of duty, drew about 300 people and television cameras. Three other K-9 officers who had died in years past were also honored. The service was the same as for a twolegged officer. a four-legged officer, but he was an officer. I mentioned on the air that Pet Angel handles cremations for service animals, including seeing eye dogs and search and rescue dogs, for free, so that message was out there. Also, one of the sheriff s department employees was a woman I had recently helped after her doggie died. She called her lieutenant and said, We need to do something for Arco; get in touch with Coleen. The lieutenant called me. He said, I don t want to make a big deal about this. I told him, You may not want to, but the community wants to pay their respects, and you shouldn t deny them that chance. So we had the service, and we took in donations toward purchasing and training additional K-9 dogs, and the reception in the community was huge. So have most people in the area read or heard about you by now? Oh, yes. I ve got the power of 10 going right now. I ve got the 370 families I ve served, and my database is actually about 500 records of people who ve come in for some reason or another, and I know each one of those people is telling 10 other people, who are then each telling 10 other people. I ve got families coming down from three and four hours away who are bringing babies here. So your service area goes beyond the immediate Indianapolis metro area? Absolutely. Next week, I ve got a family driving down from Chicago because after calling around in that city to find out how their baby would be handled, they weren t comfortable with what they were told. So they re going to start bringing all their pets to me. They ve got six elderly kitties at home. They ve also buried a number of animals in their yard, and they re going to start bringing those to me to cremate. They come to me because of the grief support I give and because of how I handle the bodies. I don t use bags or freezers. I wrap them in a blanket and put them in a little casket. When mom and dad are ready for the cremation to take place, we go to the crematory and handle it like it s handled on the human side, except for the fact that I don t go the freezer route. Do you have a specific crematory you work with? How do you handle your due diligence? I have one crematory I work with; it was a very diligent selection process on my part and I am very diligent in maintaining how I want them to handle our business. Nobody in town knows who does my cremations, because I don t want to make it about retorts. My business isn t about retorts, it s about what I can do for families. Families have never questioned me about the crematory. I have tags that go with the babies and that comes back with the cremated remains. When you re working with someone in another town, do you pick a crematory in their town? I have people from out of town bring their babies to me, because it s about me and my process and I think people know that. Purdue University is a large veterinary school about an hour and a half away where we go. I charge the family mileage to go outside a 50-mile radius, like a human funeral home does, but the families don t mind. After being in business for 15 months, could you make a living just doing this? Not yet, but with new business start-ups, the model is three to five years to get to that point, and I m hoping to get there sooner. Our run rate right now is 500 families per year, and we re starting to get vets calling us and asking us to help their families. We re also working on licensing agreements with people who want to open pet funeral homes in other cities. The licensing will include the right to use the Pet Angel name and logos and branding tag lines. I ve told people I can t make any promises, but like me, they know in their heart that this business is going to work. Oddly enough, the families who are opening the next locations are ones I served here. They re planning to relocate to other parts of the country and they want to open pet funeral homes. So these aren t people who have a funeral background? No, but it s all teachable. There are only two things you can t teach: compassion and empathy. I can t teach love of animals either, but you re not going to approach me about running a pet funeral home if you don t like animals. If you ve got compassion and you ve got empathy, I can teach you the rest. The standard operating procedures manual that comes with licensing covers how to answer the phone, how you go out on a death call, how you set up your shelves of merchandise, how you market yourself in the community, how you make a presentation to a vet clinic, how you make at-need arrangements, how you conduct a funeral service. Everything you need to know is in there. And of course, between myself and Brian, someone will be there to see them through the process. We ll go on site and go out with them on death calls to make sure they re OK. Do you know what s driving your business? The free publicity, the Internet site, the location? to page International Cemetery&Funeral Management Go to for one-click access to advertisers

7 A pillow personalized with a pomeranian s photo and some of the dog s fur. To take advantage of walk-in traffic, the Pet Angel merchandise display in the front room includes not only urns and markers but also items appropriate for any pet, including those who are still very much alive, including photo frames, bracelets, pillows, rocks and other items that can be personalized with photos, pawprints and names. Ellis works with local artists to complete some items, and she and her mother-in-law, Nancy Burke, put their arts and crafts talents to good use in creating other one-ofa-kind products. A mommy s bracelet includes a locket charm with top dog on the cover and the dog s picture inside, alphabet blocks spelling out the dog s name and a bone charm. A rock with the dog s paw print on it. Ellis talks to a client in the gallery area, which is separated from the next room by the bookshelves, a see-through fireplace and glass-paned doors on either side of the shelves. In a grief situation, you feel like the walls are coming in on you, Ellis says, so I wanted to make sure there would be a lot of glass. The door goes through to the chapel area, which has a similar bookcasefireplace setup. On either side of the fireplace in the chapel are what appear to be television cabiinets, which hold casket displays. Photo by Corso Photography Why serving pets is a good idea, and how a human funeral home can do it right Coleen Ellis believes a human funeral home can benefit in several ways from adding services for animals, but and this is a crucial point only if it is done correctly. Opening a pet funeral home can provide a company with an excellent community outreach program, a source of preneed leads and a way to complete the circle of service by serving all family members, whether four-legged or two-legged. Some basic guidelines for doing it right 1. Don t think of it as a 9-5 side business you can run with little effort. Your regular funeral home is on call 24/7, and your pet funeral home needs to be, too. Give the business your full attention and provide pet families with full service. If you give it anything less than that, you re going to defeat your purpose and start damaging your brand. When I took my dead pet, Mico, to a human funeral home, they not only made me come in the back door and sit at the back of the chapel with the lights off, they did no post-service at all. Nobody told me about urns. And not one funeral director came out of their office and said, Gosh, Coleen, we re sorry about your doggie. We re thinking of you. They gave it half service, and the whole thing left a very bad taste in my mouth. 2. Protect your reputation with people who don t like animals, as well. The bottom line is, there is a segment of the population that doesn t like animals, and you don t want to hurt your brand with them, either. A pet facility separate from your human funeral home is a good idea all around. 3. Make your pet facility pet-friendly. People should feel free to bring in their pets, whether on a leash or in their arms. Make sure the flooring can handle accidents. Have merchandise on display that people can buy for live pets as well as for pets they want to memorialize, including high-end food bowls and picture frames. Keep some animal treats and toys on hand, as well as a bowl of fresh water. (In the photo above of Ellis memorial center, cat and dog treats are in the bowl and urn on the table at front left. The water bowl is in the family room.) This should be obvious, but just to be clear: Pet funeral home employees must love animals! 22 International Cemetery&Funeral Management Go to for one-click access to advertisers

8 from page 20 I wish I could answer that question definitively, but I can t. The frustrating thing, in a good way, is that literally everything we ve done has worked. So I don t have anything that s surfacing as the one thing billboard advertising, direct mail, radio advertising that we should do. Of course, I m nowhere near being totally top-of-mind on my awareness, so I do want to keep awareness advertising. But between our word-of-mouth, the reputation we ve built and the fact that I m really involved in the pet world, attending pet fairs and doing grief support and semiannual services for the humane society, I ve positioned myself as the place to call for pet care death services and information. Pet cemeteries have been around for a long time. Not everyone uses them, but they ve heard of them. Why does the idea of a pet funeral home seem so different? You know, the general public equates the two. So for instance, when I tell neighbors I opened a pet funeral home, the next time I see them they ask, How much did it cost to buy ground up there? I say, No, I own a funeral home, not a cemetery. Those of us in the business make that distinction the public doesn t. But one reason I think I m going to be successful is that just like on the human side, the pet cremation rate is going up. People don t want to bury their babies here in Indianapolis and then retire to Arizona and leave them behind, either in a pet cemetery or in the backyard of a house they no longer own. On your Web site, you mention offering a processional. Have you actually done any? Brian did just recently, but it wasn t to a cemetery; it was to a crematory. It was a home euthanasia. He went out, picked the pet up and they processed over to the crematory, because the family wanted to put the baby in themselves. Is there anything you re doing or offering now that s different from when you opened? Probably mostly tweaking our services as we understand more about what families want. And we ve added products, because I keep finding new items I think are appealing. What have you learned so far? I ve learned and confirmed. I ve confirmed that with pet merchandise, if you show it, they ll buy it. When Mico died, a funeral director told me, Coleen, people don t want urns for their pets. That is so wrong. I ve confirmed people s love for their babies. Confirmed the fact that they like the humanization of the process. I ve confirmed that all they want is somebody to help them through this time. This frame is also an urn. The photos go from puppyhood to old guy. A snipping of the dog s fur and a pawprint complete the picture. CompuStone AD 1/2 Island 4-COLOR For the latest news from around the world, go to and click on News Page March-April