Aftercare & Cremation
Grief is the price of love.
Compassion 4 Paws was founded with the purpose of honoring your pet’s end-of-life journey, and the deep bond you share with your companion. Over the years our vision has expanded beyond hospice care and euthanasia and into personalized aftercare, where we may continue to respectfully care for your pet.
We now provide aquamation (water-based cremation) services at our Compassion 4 Paws aftercare center. By offering this continuum of end-of-life care, your pet does not leave our guardianship from the time we help them in your home, until their ashes are ready to come back to you in a treasured urn or are respectfully scattered along the coast of Whidbey Island.
Naturally Respectful
Water cremation is a gentle and eco-friendly alternative to traditional flame-based cremation. It uses a combination of alkalinity and warm, flowing water to gently accelerate the natural course of tissue breakdown that would occur in the soil.
Water cremation supports our commitment to your pet, the human-animal bond, and the environment by promising to be Naturally Respectful to:
Your beloved pet. We promise to care for your pet with respect and dignity for every moment they are in our care, as if they were our own.
You. We promise to treat you and your family with respect and offer you support as you navigate your grief. We will always offer full transparency regarding our aquamation process.
The human-animal bond. We promise to honor and respect the loving relationship you shared with your companion.
The environment. We promise to make decisions to provide a more environmentally sound and sustainable pet aftercare approach.
What is Water Cremation?
Also known as Aquamation or alkaline hydrolysis, this method of cremation uses warm water and an alkali salt, to reduce a body to its basic element of bone. While cremation by water or fire both yield “ash”, there is approximately 20% more ash returned following aquamation than with flame-based cremation. From an environmental standpoint, aquamation produces no toxic air emissions or by-products consumes 90% less energy with 1/10th of the carbon footprint than flame-based cremation, and does not burn fossil fuels.
For more details on the water cremation process, please click the button below.
What are my pet aftercare options?
I would like to have my pet cremated alone and have the ashes returned to me.
I would like my pet cremated, but do not want the ashes returned to me.
Additional Options
- For families wanting to take responsibility for the aftercare process, they can choose self-directed burial. For more info go here.
- For families wanting fire-based private and non-private cremation, we will partner with West Coast Pet Memorial. Please contact us for more information if interested.
We are here to help.
"All that we love deeply becomes a part of us"
Helen Keller
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Service Area
Our service area extends North to some parts of Marysville and South to Tukwila. We also service the Eastside including Redmond, Woodinville, and Bellevue. Please review our service area map for details.
*Rates and services will vary based on availability and location within our service area. Please call for more information*