Starting Your Journey of Grief
We recognize the heavy-heartedness and understand the mournful feelings that come with saying goodbye to a pet. Honor, respect, and remembrance are very important steps in each person's grief journey. Because of this, we offer several options for pet cremation. Respectful post-appointment body-care is always a top priority for our staff. We also offer a host of different memorial products. We feel that giving you plenty of options can help support you throughout your journey of grief.
Our Pet Cremation Facility
The River Valley Gateway Pet Crematorium is the first and only IAOPCC (International Association of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories) accredited crematory in the state of Colorado. This means that our crematory is evaluated against a pool of more than 250 standards that represent the best practices in pet cremation care and pet crematory management. We are the only crematory in the River Valley that has a viewing room for any client that wishes to witness the cremation of their pet. We go out of our way to provide respectful transportation of each pet that we are given the opportunity to take care of in the pet aftercare process. These are just two of the things we do that separate us from the rest of the industry.
Pet Cremation Options
"Private Cremation" - This type of cremation occurs when only one pet is in the crematory during the cremation experience. This type of cremation is not offered by all pet crematories. We feel that this type of cremation is necessary to offer, as many pet parents find comfort in knowing that the ashes being returned to them belong 100% to their pet. Private Cremation is the only type of cremation where we can make this 100% guarantee. After the cremation is complete your pet's ashes will be returned to you in a standard urn or an urn of your choice. A certificate of cremation will be issued to you and included with your urn.
"Individual" or "Partitioned" Cremation - This type of cremation occurs when several pets, separated by bricks or stainless steel pans, are in the crematory during the cremation experience. This type of cremation is often confused to be private cremation when in reality there is a fine line between the two. Although we pride ourselves on meticulously following our protocols when conducting Individual Cremation, we cannot ensure that 100% of the ashes we return to you will be that of your fur-baby. This is because of a process called comingling. Comingling occurs when a bone fragment gets hot enough to pop/jump up and over the barrier separating the bodies. Even though the barrier for separation between each pet serves its purpose, comingling is never fully avoidable during a partitioned cremation. However, just like Private Cremation after the partitioned cremation is complete your pet's ashes will be returned to you in a standard urn or an urn of your choice, and a certificate of cremation will be issued to you and included with your urn.
"Communal" Cremation - This type of cremation occurs when multiple pets are cremated at one time in the crematory. During this type of cremation, there are no separation devices in the cremation unit and the pets are cremated together. No ashes are returned but instead, the cremated remains are scatted by our personnel in a memorial scattering. This is a very respectful alternative to having your pet's ashes returned to you in an urn. A certificate of cremation is issued and sent to you.
As apart of our accreditation it is our duty to educate and inform the public about the different types of cremation options. With River Valley Gateway, you can be sure that no matter what cremation type you choose, the procedure will be completed with respect and in a way that honors the life your pet lived.