Don't let this tragedy happen to you

Family learns that their pet was not cremated 2 months after death

Our ID tag has a unique number for your baby

Our hearts are breaking for this family as they deal with the knowledge that the box they buried in their back yard was not their beloved Faya.  Our two-step identification system assures you that this will NEVER happen when you trust your precious baby into our care.


from wfaa.com:

AZLE - A 70-pound pit bull was part of the family for Emmie Teehee.

"She was 11 years old, going on 12,"  Teehee said.

But one day at the end of February, Teehee decided to end Faya's suffering from hip displacia. She had the dog euthanized at the North Texas Humane Society.

She hired the Smoke Rise Farm Pet Cemetery in Azle to cremate her dog. Then on March 2, she said she received a certificate, along with remains in a small, wooden box.

Nearly two months after burying the remains of what she thought was her beloved pet, she got a call from a friend at the Humane Society.

"She said, 'Emmie, did you ever get Faya's remains back?'" Teehee recalled. "I said, 'Yes, I buried them in the flower bed.' She was like, 'I don't know how to tell you this, but Faya's still in our freezer.'"

Neither the Humane Society nor Smoke Rise Farm can fully answer the question of what happened. The owner of the pet cemetery, Kim Maitland, said her company picked up the dog back in February, but no record of that exists.

Until this mix-up, the North Texas Humane Society didn't keep track of who picked up dead animals from the shelter. That is now corrected.

"We will have a sign-in and out for all agencies that are picking up deceased animals," said assistant shelter manager Shelly Meeks.

In a statement, Maitland said employees at Smoke Rise Farm were under the impression that the animal they received was Faya.

"Our heart goes out to the woman that she had to experience this," Maitland said in the statement. "This is not the kind of thing we would ever want to see happen."

And what about the remains in the box given to Teehee? The identity of that animal remains a mystery -- and it may stay that way.

"[I hope to] find out who that pet belongs to, that they cremated for somebody that paid for it," Teehee said. "That pet needs to go back to the family."

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Kate and Terry receive multiple honors at International Convention

the first Certified Pet Loss Professionals in the world

Certified Pet Loss Professional diploma's

Not only are Kate and Terry among the first in the country to complete their Certified Pet Loss Professional training, but they were among only a handful who received their Charter Member pins this week at the Pet Loss Professionals Alliance annual meeting, held in conjunction with the ICCFA meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada.  

According to the Pet Loss Professionals Alliance Mission Statement they are "committed to being an educational resource to its members. The membership, including pet loss suppliers and pet death care facility operators, will be dedicated to the respectful and dignified treatment of those pets entrusted to us."

Also, Beyond the Rainbow Pet Hospice and Memorial Center was honored to receive the KIP (Keeping it Personal) award for providing exceptional personalized service to a beautiful little girl named Olivia.  You can read Olivia's story on the News page of their website.  

Kate and Terry are dedicated to providing the finest end-of-life care for the furry family members that they are called on to serve.  The first pet hospice in Texas, as well as the first total end-of-life care pet providers in the country, you can rest assured that your beloved family member will be in the best possible hands when you call Beyond the Rainbow.  

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Are you trusting your beloved pet to a Professional...

or a disposal company ???

We all know what a horrible feeling it is to walk out of a Vet's office with nothing but a leash in your hand.  Making the decision to end your beloved pet's suffering is heart-wrenching and you shouldn't have to worry about what is happening to your baby once you leave.  

Make sure that you have the peace of mind knowing what happens to your baby when you leave. Ask your veterinarian if they have personally been to the crematory that they use, and if they have seen how the pets are treated there.  Get the name and phone number of this crematory and call that crematory and ask these questions:

1) Are you and your firm members of the Pet Loss Professionals Alliance?
2) When will my pet be picked up from my Vet's clinic?
3) What will me pet be transported in ?  The bed of a truck or panel van with other pets, or in a passenger vehicle?
 4) What identification processes do you use to assure that my pet is correctly identified and that I know that the cremains I receive are my pets?
5) Is my pet the ONLY pet in the cremation chamber from beginning to end?
6) Are other pets stacked or piled on top of my pet AT ANY TIME ??
7) Can I bring my pet to the crematory and stay while they are placed in the cremation chamber?
8) If you do "communal" cremations (also called "general" or "group" cremations, where hundreds of pounds of pets are cremated together), how do you remove all those remains before my pet is placed in the chamber for her cremation?  

If the answer to the first question is "no", then you might not need go any further.    But if you keep asking the questions, and you don't get satisfactory results, please, for the love of your pet, don't leave them at your Vet's office.  

As funeral directors, charter members of the Pet Loss Professionals Alliance, and among the first to become Certified Pet Loss Professionals, we can promise you that your beloved will be treated with the same dignity and respect at Beyond the Rainbow as we have given to human family members for decades.   We arrive at your Vet's clinic as soon as possible, and make every attempt to be there at your appointment time.  Your baby will be wrapped in a blanket and lovingly placed in a pet bed in our SUV.  We NEVER put them in a trash bag, NEVER transport them in the bed of a truck, and we NEVER stack them on top of other pets.    We ONLY provide single, private cremations and our stainless steel identification tag is placed on your pet as soon as we have your baby in our care, and stays with them the entire time.      

To learn more about the Pet Loss Professionals Alliance and the Standards and Ethics that we as members abide by, check out the web site at http://www.iccfa.com and click on the PLPA tab.  

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Paws and Remember Holiday Memorial Service

A Service remembering your furry-angels this season

Join us Sunday, December 4, 2011 at a very special memorial service.  The first holidays are the hardest after the loss of a family member, and our pets are no different.  Please come be with us as we take time out of the busy holiday season to reflect on the good times we had with our pets, and celebrate the season.  

We will provide personalized ornaments, free of charge, for you to hang on your tree.

When :  Ornament selection and personalization begins at 2:30
            Service of Remembrance will be at 3:00.  

Where:  North Dallas Funeral Home, 2710 Valley View Lane, Farmers Branch, TX

Refreshments will be served.    

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National Pet Hospice Day

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Have you thought about hospice for your pet?  Your Veterinarian may have talked to you about the "3 stages of your pet's life": Puppy or Kitten, Adult and Geriatric.  But what about the 4th stage: the end-of-life stage.  Are you prepared to keep them comfortable and in their home for as long as they have a good quality-of-life ?

Hospice isn't just for terminal pets.  We can also help with arthritis, kidney failure, hip dysplasia and many other common ailments that our senior pets have to deal with.    Call us for an in-home evaluation and let us show you how we can work together as a team to make your baby's 4th life stage better !!! No more stressful trips in the car to the Vet's office...we bring a Vet to you !!!

Please join us at the Bedford Animal Shelter, 1809 Reliance Parkway, Bedford, Texas on Saturday, November 5, 2011 from 10 AM - 2 PM as we celebrate National Pet Hospice Awareness Day.  We will have information on Hospice available for you and will be able to answer any questions that you may have.

We will be blessing the animals at 11:00 AM, so bring your babies along.  

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What a great time we had with DFW Lab Rescue

Blessing the Animals, running, playing, and having CAKE !!!

Blessing the Babies

The weather was perfect, the sun was shining and the puppies were running as we gathered Saturday, October 22 at Central Bark in Grand Prairie, to visit with old friends and make a few new ones.  I was honored to provide a Blessing for the Animals as a part of this wonderful day.  The puppies ran, the mommies and daddies wore silly t-shirts and cheered on their babies in the races and after all was said and done, they had cake.  A very special thank you to Three Dog Bakery for the puppy cake that all the puppies enjoyed.  Also thanks to Freebirds for the burritos the mommy's and daddy's had too !

Robin Hamilton is a tireless advocate for DFW Lab Rescue and she put together a great event on Saturday.  THANK YOU Robin, for all you do to help Lab babies find forever homes in Dallas/Fort Worth !!!!!!!  And thank you for allowing Beyond the Rainbow to be a part of this wonderful day !!!

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