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From Ashes

Pet Memorials

Memorial Stones for Pets: A Stone Shaped Like the Animal You Lost

A remembrance stone made with your pet's ashes can be an abstract shape, or the animal themselves — modelled from your own photographs. Here is what the UK options are, what they cost, and the one decision you have to get right first.

By From Ashes Editorial Team, Editorial5 min read
A pink remembrance stone shaped as a seated cat, on a round wooden base by a window

Photo: Spogad / spogads.com · Provided by Spogad

People who have never lost an animal sometimes struggle to understand the size of it. People who have do not need it explained. The options for keeping something of them are the same as for a person — and one of them exists only for pets.

Before any of it, though, there is a decision at the vet's that quietly closes doors.

First, the decision that cannot be undone

Only an individual cremation returns your pet's ashes to you. In a communal cremation, several animals are cremated together and nothing comes back. No keepsake made from the ashes is possible afterwards — not a stone, not jewellery, not a tree.

If there is any chance you will want something later, choose the individual option now, even if you have no idea yet what that something would be. You can take months to decide on the keepsake. You cannot undo a communal cremation.

Typical UK costs for individual cremation, by size of animal:

Pet Individual cremation
Cat roughly £150–£200
Small dog around £200–£215
Large dog around £330–£375

Communal cremation runs roughly £85–£185. Arranging it through your vet is convenient, but usually costs more than going to a pet crematorium directly, because the practice adds a handling fee. Many crematoria will collect from your home or from the vet.

A stone made with the ashes

A remembrance stone uses the ashes as a material rather than sealing a pinch inside glass or resin. For a pet, the result is small enough to hold in one hand and heavy enough to feel like something.

Three providers serve UK families, and they take noticeably different approaches:

Provider What they make for pets Price Time
Forever in Stones (UK) Solidified remembrance stones, hand-finished, with a section of its site dedicated to pets Not published Not published
Parting Stone (United States) Solidifies the remains into a collection of smooth stones — 40–80+ for a person, fewer for a smaller animal $2,495 for people; pet pricing not shown on the page we checked 10–12 weeks from ordering
Spogad (UK) Remembrance Stone Heart for a pet; or a Silhouette shaped as the animal Heart £350; Silhouette £310 or from £460 3–4 weeks from receiving the ashes

The silhouette: a stone in the shape of your animal

This is the option with no equivalent elsewhere. Instead of a heart or a pebble, the stone is the animal — sitting, standing, curled up.

Spogad makes it in two versions, and the difference is the whole point:

Ready-made mould — £310. Spogad describes these as "neutral moulds that are not tied to a specific breed or appearance": a cat that reads as a cat, a dog that reads as a dog. If your animal was a fairly typical shape, this is the quicker, cheaper route.

Personalised, modelled from your photographs — from £460. A designer builds a three-dimensional model from photos you send, revises it with your feedback, then produces a casting mould and makes test pieces before the final stone is crafted from the ashes. Spogad lists all of that — the 3D model, the revisions, the mould, the test silhouettes — as included in the price.

The second is worth the difference when the shape of your animal was theirs: the ear that never quite stood up, the particular way they folded their legs, a breed that no generic mould is going to resemble. A greyhound and a bulldog are not the same silhouette, and neither is a rabbit or a horse.

Practical notes, checked on Spogad's site on 23 September 2026: pieces are made within three to four weeks of the ashes arriving; there is a five-year guarantee covering defects in materials and workmanship; engraving is available, including a pet's face on the Heart; colour and two-tone finishes can be chosen.

What is not published anywhere: how much of the ashes a given size uses. Ask before ordering if you want the rest returned — and ask for that answer in writing.

The other things you can do with a pet's ashes

  • Jewellery — most UK makers work with pet ashes as standard; some also set fur or whiskers. Hand on Heart, in Cumbria, lists pet ashes jewellery as its own category.
  • Glass — paperweights and pebbles with the ashes suspended inside, from around £60.
  • A tree — a biodegradable urn planted with a sapling, often in the garden they knew. Ashes are alkaline, so use an urn with a neutralising mix.
  • Diamonds — possible for pets, though for a very small animal you should ask whether there is enough carbon for the size of stone you want.
  • An urn — sized by the same rule as for people, roughly one cubic inch of capacity per pound the animal weighed.

Common questions

How long until I get my pet's ashes back?

It varies by crematorium — ask when you book, because it decides when anything else can start. The keepsake is a separate step afterwards, and there is no hurry.

Can a silhouette be made for a rabbit, a horse or a bird?

The ready-made moulds cover common shapes. For anything else, the personalised version is the one that can be modelled to your animal — send photographs and ask before ordering.

How many photographs do they need?

Spogad's site says the model is built from "photos you provide" but does not state a number or any technical requirements. Ask, and send more angles than you think are needed — a side view and a straight-on view at minimum.

Is it strange to spend this on a pet?

No. Nearly every memorial made from human ashes is offered for animals too, for the straightforward reason that people want them.

Can my pet's ashes be mixed with mine later?

Some families plan for this. Rules differ between cemeteries and natural burial grounds, so check with the specific site rather than assuming.

Sources

Disclosure: From Ashes has a commercial relationship with Spogad and may earn from orders placed through us. It does not affect which providers we cover or what we say about them — Forever in Stones and Parting Stone are named here because they are the alternatives, and we have no relationship with either.