Free tool
Pet Memorial Finder
When the arrangements are done, the question left is what to do with the ashes. This walks through what each option needs, how permanent it is, whether more than one person can have something, and where the law has a view.
Every option is always shown. Your answers change the order and the explanation, never what you are allowed to see. No products, no prices, no shops and no affiliate links.
Where are you planning?
Your country changes the guidance we link to and the legal caution attached to scattering and burial. It does not change which options exist.
A few questions
0 of 10 answered
Answer as many as you like — the list on the right starts reordering after three. There are no wrong answers and nothing is required.
Every option
13 options, always all of them
Answer three questions and this list will reorder around what you have said.
Decide later
Keep the ashes as they came back, and choose when you are ready. Ashes are stable and there is no deadline.
- Ashes
- No ashes needed
- Permanence
- You can change your mind
- Can it be shared
- No — there is one
- Looking after it
- Nothing to do
A garden memorial
A spot in your own garden — a stone, a marker, a place that is theirs.
- Ashes
- No ashes needed
- Permanence
- Settled, but movable
- Can it be shared
- No — there is one
- Looking after it
- Occasional
A pet cemetery
A dedicated, cared-for burial ground with a place you can visit.
- Ashes
- No ashes needed
- Permanence
- Permanent — cannot be undone
- Can it be shared
- No — there is one
- Looking after it
- Nothing to do
A plaque or marker
Their name, somewhere it will stay. Indoors or out.
- Ashes
- No ashes needed
- Permanence
- Settled, but movable
- Can it be shared
- Yes — several people can each have one
- Looking after it
- Occasional
A tree or a living memorial
Something planted and growing, with or without the ashes involved.
- Ashes
- No ashes neededThis works with or without ashes. If you do want to include them, ask about quantity first — ashes change soil chemistry.
- Permanence
- Settled, but movable
- Can it be shared
- No — there is one
- Looking after it
- Ongoing
A written memorial
Their story, their photographs and what they were actually like, kept somewhere you choose who can see.
- Ashes
- No ashes needed
- Permanence
- You can change your mind
- Can it be shared
- Yes — several people can each have one
- Looking after it
- Nothing to do
An urn at home
The ashes kept in one place you have chosen, indoors, where you can see them.
- Ashes
- All of the ashes
- Permanence
- You can change your mind
- Can it be shared
- No — there is one
- Looking after it
- Nothing to do
Burial
Laying them, or their ashes, in the ground.
- Ashes
- No ashes needed
- Permanence
- Permanent — cannot be undone
- Can it be shared
- No — there is one
- Looking after it
- Occasional
- Home burial is genuinely regulated in places, and the rules can turn on depth, distance from water, whether you own the land, and what medicines your pet was given. Check before you dig.
Glass or something made
A small portion of the ashes worked into an object — glass, ceramic, or similar.
- Ashes
- A small portionA small amount, similar to jewellery.
- Permanence
- Settled, but movable
- Can it be shared
- Yes — several people can each have one
- Looking after it
- Nothing to do
Jewellery
A small amount of the ashes sealed into something you wear.
- Ashes
- A small portionOnly a very small amount is used; the rest stays with you.
- Permanence
- Settled, but movable
- Can it be shared
- Yes — several people can each have one
- Looking after it
- Occasional
Scattering
Releasing the ashes somewhere that meant something to you or to them.
- Ashes
- Most of the ashesYou can scatter some and keep the rest — it does not have to be all or nothing.
- Permanence
- Permanent — cannot be undone
- Can it be shared
- No — there is one
- Looking after it
- Nothing to do
- Where you may scatter is not the same everywhere. Public land, parks, beaches, waterways and land you do not own all have rules, and they differ by council, local authority, state and agency.
Several small keepsake urns
The ashes divided between a few small containers, so more than one person has something.
- Ashes
- A small portionEach keepsake holds a small share rather than the whole.
- Permanence
- You can change your mind
- Can it be shared
- Yes — several people can each have one
- Looking after it
- Nothing to do
Something printed
A designed document you can hold, frame or give to someone else.
- Ashes
- No ashes needed
- Permanence
- You can change your mind
- Can it be shared
- Yes — several people can each have one
- Looking after it
- Nothing to do
What is not here
Take it further
Add this to your Aftercare Pack
Carries the market and the memorial types across. No answers, no notes.
Work out what size urn to look for
From your pet's weight, in the unit you think in.
Write a memorial for them
Free, private by default, and yours to print or keep.
Check the rules in Australia
Scattering and burial are regulated in places. Official sources, per jurisdiction.
In the print dialog, choose A4 and set Margins to Default. Chrome adds its own header and footer with the page URL and a page number; you can turn those off under More settings if you would rather they were not there.
Your answers stay in this browser. A shared link carries only the choices you picked from these lists — there is no free-text field in this tool, so there is nothing private it could carry.
Evidence and method
Method
How this works
The whole model, in plain language. Nothing here is hidden behind a black box.
- Nothing is ever hidden from you
- All 13 options are on the page from the first moment, and they stay there. Answering questions changes the ORDER and adds an explanation of why something might or might not suit. It never removes an option, because a tool that decides what you are not allowed to consider is not helping you.
- It tells you what each one actually needs
- Whether ashes are required at all, and roughly how much. That sounds obvious until you notice that the competitor's version of this tool never mentions it once — a family can work all the way through it and only discover afterwards that the thing they chose needs ashes they did not have returned.
- Reasons and cautions sit together
- Every option carries both, at the same size, in the same card. If scattering everything would leave nothing for the keepsake urns you also liked, the keepsake urns say so themselves.
- There are no products, prices or shops
- Final Tail does not sell memorials, does not take commission and does not list retailers it has not reviewed. So there is no price range here, no vendor, and no affiliate link — a figure would be a number we made up.
- The law is flagged, never guessed
- Scattering and burial are genuinely regulated in places, and the rules turn on things like land ownership, distance from water and which council you are in. This tool says to check, and links to the jurisdiction that governs it. It never tells you that something is allowed.
- Your answers stay with you
- Held in this browser. A shared link carries only the choices you picked from these fixed lists — there is no free-text field anywhere in the tool, so a link cannot carry anything private. Analytics records which option came out first, and nothing else.
Limits
What this cannot tell you
- It cannot tell you what is right. There is no correct answer to this and no ranking of quality anywhere in it.
- It does not price anything. Costs vary enormously by market, material and supplier, and a range here would be invented.
- It does not name suppliers or link to shops, so it cannot tell you where to buy any of this.
- It is not legal advice. Where scattering and burial are concerned it tells you to check, and points you at the authority.
- It knows nothing about your provider. Whether ashes are being returned to you, and how much, is a question for them.
Sources
Where this comes from
Every source we used, what it supports and when we retrieved it. If one of these changes, this page is wrong and we want to know.
Final Tail
Pet ashes, urns, jewellery and memorial guidance
The properties each option carries — whether it needs ashes, how much, whether it divides between people, what looking after it involves — come from Final Tail's own memorial guidance clusters in each market. They are structural facts about the option, not claims about any product or provider.
Retrieved 30 July 2026
Final Tail
Pet urn size calculator and its evidence
The only quantitative statement this tool makes about ashes — that keepsakes and jewellery need a small portion rather than the whole — rests on the same weight-to-volume evidence as the urn size calculator. Anything finer than that would be invented, so nothing finer is stated.
Retrieved 30 July 2026
Final Tail
Pet aftercare laws and consumer rights
The legal caution attached to scattering and burial, and the routes to the jurisdiction that actually governs it. Every legal statement Final Tail makes is sourced per jurisdiction there, and this tool links to it rather than restating it.
Retrieved 30 July 2026
Questions
Common questions
Do I have to decide now?
No. Ashes are stable indefinitely and there is no deadline of any kind. 'Decide later' is a real option in this tool, listed alongside the others rather than buried under them, and it rises to the top if you say you are unsure.
Can I split the ashes between several things?
Usually, yes. Jewellery, keepsake urns and made objects each use a small portion rather than the whole, so a family can share matching pieces or keep an urn at home and scatter the rest. The tool marks which options divide and which do not.
Can I scatter ashes anywhere?
No, and this is the one place families most often assume otherwise. Public land, parks, beaches, waterways and land you do not own all have rules, and they differ by council, local authority, state and agency. Check before you go, and see Final Tail's pet aftercare laws pages for the jurisdiction that governs where you are.
Are there affiliate links or recommended products?
No. There is no affiliate link, no commission, no sponsored option and no named retailer anywhere in this tool, and no price is stated for anything. Final Tail's memorial pages are information only.
Does the tool work if we did not get ashes back?
Yes, and it changes what it shows you. Say so on the first question and the options that need ashes drop down the list with an explanation, while the ones that do not — a plaque, a garden memorial, a living memorial, a written memorial — rise.
Next
Where to go from here
Create a memorial
Write their story and keep it. Free, private by default.
OpenUrn size calculator
What internal capacity to look for, from your pet's weight.
OpenPet aftercare laws
What the law where you live says about scattering and burial.
OpenAftercare Pack
A printable plan, with your memorial choices carried across.
Open