Choosing between Private or Communal Aquamation
We custom-craft a beautiful variety of personalized mementos right here in-house. Check out the Key Differences at a Glance section below to see exactly what is included with your chosen service.
Honoring Your Pet: Understanding Aquamation Choices
Losing a beloved pet is an incredibly difficult experience and deciding how to honor their memory can add another layer of complexity to grief. Aquamation, also known as alkaline hydrolysis or water-based cremation, offers a gentle and environmentally friendly alternative to flame cremation. When choosing Aquamation for your cherished companion, Comforting Currents offers two options: Private and Communal. Understanding the differences between these choices can help you make the best decision for your family and your pet's final farewell.
Key Differences at a Glance:
Both Private and Communal Aquamation are respectful and eco-friendly ways to say goodbye to your pet. The choice ultimately depends on your personal preferences, your grieving process, and how you wish to memorialize your beloved companion. Here is a concise overview of the differences:
Return of Remains: Private Aquamation returns your pet's cremains; communal does not.
Urn & Engraving: Private offers urn choices with personalized engraving whereas Communal does not.
Final Resting Place: Private remains are returned to you; Communal remains are scattered in a serene natural setting.
Cost: Private Aquamation (starting at $210) generally costs more due to the specialized, singular handling and return of remains whereas Communal is a more economical option (starting at $110).
Personalization: Private allows for highly personalized urns and keepsakes whereas Communal focuses more on a collective, natural return (although a paw print, mementos and a clipping is available for an additional price).
Private Aquamation: A Personal Journey Home
Our Private service includes free pickup, a beautiful custom-designed Acacia urn, clay pawprint or stone paw etching, a gentle fur clipping, and our Auamation process with individual partioning.
Comforting Currents Private Service is designed for pet owners who wish to receive their pet's remains back. In this process, we start by collecting a keepsake fur clipping and make a clay paw print memento, and then your pet is respectfully placed in its own individually partitioned section of the Aquamation chamber. The gentle process of water and alkaline solution accelerates natural decomposition, leaving behind only the sterile bone remains.
After the Aquamation process, the remains are carefully processed into a fine white powder and respectfully placed into a deluxe wooden urn. Our Private Service also includes custom engraving of the urn, allowing you to choose an etching captured from a picture of your beloved animal, or a beautiful image like the Tree of Life, and a heartfelt message of up to 100 characters. The result will beautifully reflect your pet's personality and your family's wishes. We also offer a variety of premium urn styles for a moderate additional price, from classic and elegant to several contemporary options.
Beyond the return of remains and personalization options of Private Aquamation, Comforting Currents has additional services you can consider. We are happy to arrange a viewing and final farewell before the process in our serene and nicely appointed Remembrance Room and we work with talented local artisans that can create original drawings, paintings, jewelry and mementos. At each step, we are here to help and assist in ensuring a sense of closure that allows you to keep your pet's physical presence close in a dignified manner.
Communal Aquamation: A Gentle Release to Nature
Our Communal service includes a serene scattering ceremony performed in a beautiful, natural setting, ink pawprint and a gentle fur clipping, and our Auamation process.
Communal Aquamation is the other compassionate option we offer, which is the choice for those who do not want to receive their pet's individual remains back, or for whom a shared memorial resonates more deeply. In communal Aquamation, several pets are placed together in a shared chamber. While each pet is handled with dignity, the collective nature of the process means that individual separation of remains is not maintained.
For this option, as opposed to the cremains being returned, they are solemnly and ceremoniously spread in a serene natural setting. This provides a symbolic return to nature and a gentle integration with the vastness and tranquility that Florida has to offer. Comforting Currents will also provide families who choose communal Aquamation with a Certificate that includes the date of the ceremony and location. This allows solace and a specific place for remembrance without the physical remains. It can be a powerful way to feel connected to your pet, knowing they are now part of nature’s expanse.
Written by: Scott Bacon: Partner / Director of Operations and Marketing
Scott Bacon spent over 20 years managing complex projects, significant budgets, and high-level client relationships at Preferred Hotel Group and Miles Partnership, learning that true success always comes down to how well you take care of people. As a lifelong animal lover who freely admits to becoming a "blubbering mess" whenever he loses a pet of his own, he intimately understands the heavy, overwhelming toll of that goodbye. He channels that personal experience into his work every day, serving as a grounded, deeply empathetic advisor and counselor for families navigating their own grief. Scott is immensely proud to be part of the Comforting Currents team, knowing firsthand that the exceptional, compassionate service they provide makes a profound difference when people need it most.