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Samantha Schoech is a writer focusing on gifts. She spends her time finding things that combine quality, beauty, usefulness, and delight. cheap laminate flooring
Sympathy gifts are a delicate business. We’ve found 12 thoughtful picks, from a living tree to an elegant urn to commemorate a beloved pet.
Pets are the family members who supply unconditional, uncomplicated love, and for many people, losing a pet comes with a somewhat unexpected wave of deep grief. Although supporting a loved one in their bereavement doesn’t require giving a gift, a thoughtful token will acknowledge their profound loss and help them remember their furry companion with fondness. With that in mind, we chose 12 gifts—many of them as unique as the pets they commemorate.
This mid-size Italian terracotta pot is hand-engraved with a personalized memorial to a beloved pet; you can choose to add seeds or potting mix to complete the gift.
Like pets, potted plants bring joy and life. This terracotta Pet Memorial Plant Pot contains both. Choose a bespoke message to have engraved beneath a sweet paw print; seeds or a bag of corn-husk coir soil can be added for just a few dollars. If you’d rather present the gift in person, ship the pot to yourself and fill it with any 6-inch nursery pot. This will be a long-lasting and subtle reminder of cherished memories for years to come.
For a nominal fee, A Living Tribute will plant a tree or grove of trees in a designated national forest or state park in need of restoration. Gift recipients get a personalized card honoring their pet.
Give a tree from A Living Tribute to memorialize a pup who was happiest in the woods or a kitty whose days were best spent window-shopping wildlife. For just $10, A Living Tribute will plant a single tree in an impacted national or state forest (or you can pay more for groves of five to 500 trees). And gift recipients get a personalized card honoring their beloved pet. For every 1,000 trees planted, there are 4 acres of life-giving wild habitat provided. A complete list of recent projects is available for review on the website, and while you can’t pinpoint a sapling’s exact location, you can opt for a specific region or state.
This embossed ceramic urn, with a snug wooden lid, discretely houses the remains of pets up to 34 pounds.
As supervising editor Hannah Morrill found out last May, the compulsory box you’re required to purchase alongside a pet’s cremation leaves a lot to be desired. (Hers was faux mahogany with gaudy gilded hinges.) A better option for keeping ashes close are these understated and elegant 4-by-4-inch ceramic urns. They are large enough to hold the cremated remains of a pet who weighed up to 34 pounds, and they come in teal, white, or black, with a fitted wooden lid. As with many finds on Etsy, shipping can be a little slow, but the end result is well worth the wait.
Mount a pet’s photo in this hinged wooden shadow box, complete with a personalized brass plaque and display peg for collars, treasured toys, or other mementos.
The jangle of a collar. The skitter of a batted toy mousie. This Pet Memorial Shadow Box Frame creates a tactile tribute to a departed pet by preserving a photo alongside cherished memorabilia. Every aspect of the box can be customized, from the wood and size to the mat color and number of pegs. Submit a photo, and the company will print and mount it for you, or skip that step and use a photo from home. The comments section includes lots of sweet and creative inspiration photos for assembling meaningful assortments. Don’t expect for it to arrive quickly, though: Each box is made to order and ships from England.
Hang this 40-mm cut-crystal ball in the window, and let the scattered splashes of rainbow light evoke memories. Chain and hanger are included.
Intended to hang in a window, this 40-mm cut crystal will refract rainbow shimmers around the room, to help your loved one memorialize their beloved companion. Presented in an elegant gift box, each crystal is outfitted with an 18-inch chain and a 0.75-inch wall hanger. The prism offers a lovely yet subtle daily reminder that the recipient can enjoy for years to come, and you can option include a personalized note.
This natural river stone, engraved with a pet’s name, serves as a burial marker or a lasting memorial indoors or out.
No matter what a family decides to do with the remains of their beloved pet, a stone marker is a beautiful commemoration, especially when placed in a favorite lounging spot. The natural shapes of these personalized river stones ensure that each marker is unique. You can choose a size from about 3.5 to 5 inches, along with the font and an optional design.
This simple glass jar is filled with a hand-poured soy-wax candle, and it can be customized with a pet’s photograph, for a subtle memorial. It burns cleanly for up to 50 hours.
We love the simple, dignified design of these personalized soy-based jar candles. Just send a photo of the cherished pet along with your desired text, and this maker will create a memorial candle that burns for about 50 hours. The cinnamon-scented soy wax is hand-poured. A frosted-glass option with a wooden lid comes in a number of scents, including balsam cedar and grapefruit mint, as well as unscented.
Provide a great photo, and four weeks later an artful and accurate hand-painted portrait of your pet arrives.
The artist behind these charming hand-painted watercolor portraits is based in Italy, so the process—from ordering to receipt—can take up to four weeks. For the price and the quality, however, we think the work is unparalleled. Just send in a photo of a loved one’s cherished pet, and they will receive a charming, carefully hand-painted portrait that expertly captures the pet’s individual spirit. Each original work comes on a thick piece of 8-by-10 watercolor paper, but you can send a quick message to the seller, and she’ll accommodate other sizes.
Receive a unique silhouette digitally rendered and printed on archival paper. The company offers flexible customer service and tons of customizable options.
These classic silhouettes elegantly preserve the image of any good boy or girl. Just provide a profile photograph—finding a good one is probably the trickiest part—and the company sends back a digitally rendered proof in only a few days. In our experience, representatives were supremely responsive in making tweaks and edits, such as removing an errant hair and even trying a totally different picture, with no upcharge. The customization options are nice, too: You can choose from seven sizes, select optional framing, and add personalized text in a range of fonts.
The Bouqs Company delivers pretty, long-lasting arrangements. For even more longevity, repottable succulents are tucked within this muted sympathy arrangement.
This particular bouquet, from our favorite flower-delivery service, includes fragrant eucalyptus, white alstroemeria, and plantable succulents so the bouquet can continue to serve as a living tribute to someone’s best bud. The succulents come in a water-saving tube, with easy instructions for repotting. The bouquet is available in three sizes, ranging in price from $60 to $100, but we found that the midrange deluxe size was already generous enough to split into two arrangements. If you don’t think the recipient has a vase handy, you can add one for $18.
Remember a beloved pet with these understated gold initial charms, available in 14-karat recycled yellow, white, and rose gold.
These tiny initial charms can be meaningful yet private reminders of a lost pet (chains are sold separately). Made in New York City from 100% recycled gold, they accommodate one to 12 letters (they start at $70 and go up with each additional letter) in yellow, white, or rose gold. The custom initials are also available on dainty rings or earrings.
Mixbook offers the best book-building experience, modern design options, and vibrant, color-accurate photo quality for creating a lasting tribute.
A book of favorite pet photos is a thoughtful gift that will elicit good memories for a long time to come. And the gift you’re really giving is your time, since you assemble captivating pictures of a single pet, navigate layouts, and arrange everything with care. We like this photo-book service because it’s easy to use and has lots of design options (including pet themes), and small softcover books start at just $10 for 20 photos. Mixbooks also offers great customer service and an impressively powerful app. Another great feature: Mixbook has only a 10-page minimum, a more-doable undertaking in comparison with some other services’ books, which have a minimum of 30 pages.
We love finding gifts that are unusual, thoughtful, and well vetted. See even more gift ideas we recommend.
This article was edited by Hannah Morrill and Jennifer Hunter.
Except for the time she gave a boyfriend her mother’s old toaster for Christmas, staff writer Samantha Schoech has a reputation as an excellent gift giver. She lives in San Francisco with two teens, two cats, a geriatric betta fish, and a bookseller husband. Her first book of short stories, My Mother’s Boyfriends, is coming out in 2024.
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