Private vs. Partitioned vs. Communal Pet Cremation

I didn't know there were different kinds of pet cremation.

There are.

And the names don't always help because one crematory may use a different word than another one.

Basically, here's what I wanted to know:

Is Zoe going to be cremated by herself?

That was the question that mattered to me.

With private cremation, your pet is cremated alone and you get the ashes back. That's what I chose for Zoe.

With communal cremation, multiple pets are cremated together and you normally don't get your pet's individual ashes back. It's usually the cheaper option.

Then there's partitioned cremation.

More than one pet can be in the chamber at the same time, but they're separated. You still receive ashes back, although there can be some mixing.

Here's where my brain went with that one.

If it costs $200 to cremate one pet alone, you'd think putting two pets in there would make it $100 each.

Four pets?

Fifty bucks.

That's apparently not how this works.

Logic wasn't exactly running at full power at that point in the morning anyway.

I chose private because I wanted Zoe alone.

That doesn't mean everybody has to make the same decision. If getting the ashes back doesn't matter to you, communal cremation may make perfectly good sense.

The bigger thing is don't get hung up on whatever name is printed on the price sheet.

Ask them:

“Will my pet be cremated alone?”

That's a whole lot easier to understand than trying to remember what everybody means by private, individual, partitioned or communal at two in the morning.

Read next

• How Much Does Pet Cremation Cost?
• How Long Does It Take to Get Your Pet's Ashes Back?
• The 11 questions to ask before the cremation