A pet isn’t just a cute companion. They can truly be a beloved family member. So, when you lose a pet, you might want to celebrate and honor their life, just like you would if you lost any other loved one.
Overview: Our Top Picks
- Paw Print Headstone ($19.95)
- Statue of a Dog Lounging ($19.65)
- Pets urn ($90+)
- Water Garden ($50.00)
- Pedestal Birdbath ($29.99)
Jump ahead to these sections:
- Pet Memorial Garden Ideas for a Dog
- Pet Memorial Garden Ideas for a Cat
- Pet Memorial Garden Ideas for Fish, Birds, and Other Animals
Consider doing so with a pet memorial garden. This spot will serve as a daily reminder of the happy times you and your pet spent together. That said, knowing you’d like to design a pet memorial garden isn’t exactly the same as knowing how to.
These creative ideas will inspire you when designing your own pet memorial garden.
Memorial tip: Like a garden memorial, an online memorial page can be a meaningful and lasting tribute to your beloved pet. Cake's online memorial pages are easy to use and completely free. You can also use them to raise funds for a pet-related charity or to cover outstanding veterinary bills and final expenses.
Pet Memorial Garden Ideas for a Dog
The phrase “a dog is a man’s best friend” is popular for a reason. For dog lovers, canine companions are among the dearest friends they will ever have in life.
So, when you have to say goodbye to a dog, you’ll still wish to express your love for them. The following dog memorial garden ideas will help you do so:
1. Marking the site with a paw print
As the name implies, a pet memorial garden will typically include flowers and similar decorative plants. Research flower meanings to determine which you’d like to plant in your garden. You can also turn funeral flowers into unique funeral flower keepsakes.
However, memorial gardens also tend to feature other items and details. The flowers in them may surround a headstone, for example.
If you’re thinking of adding a headstone to a memorial garden for a dog, consider choosing one that’s dog-related, like this paw print headstone.
2. Lounging around
People who add pet memorial gardens to their backyards often choose spots that have some significance. For example, perhaps your dog loved to lounge in a particularly sunny spot on the lawn.
If so, that may be the ideal spot for the garden. You could also opt for a statue of a dog lounging instead of a traditional headstone. Every time you see it, you’ll think of the way your dog used to lounge out there as well.
3. Garden path
No dog lover needs to be told that our canine friends can often have a lot of energy. Just as many dogs enjoy lounging on the lawn, plenty enjoy running around it.
Maybe your dog was just that type. This could inspire a unique memorial garden that will also serve as a beautiful lawn feature. Instead of restricting the garden to one spot, consider installing a walking path.
Plant flowers alongside it to enhance its beauty. You might even be able to design the path so it follows the typical “route” your dog would take when running around the lawn.
4. Urn for a small space
It’s important to keep in mind that not all dog lovers have big lawns for memorial gardens. Maybe you currently live in a somewhat small apartment.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t memorialize your dog. This is particularly true if you opted for pet cremation.
You could easily set aside some space for a small indoor garden with your dog's urn in the center. If you didn’t choose cremation, consider a small monument featuring pet loss quotes or similar content.
Pet Memorial Garden Ideas for a Cat
Cats also make wonderful pets. Even if a cat is small and quiet, when it’s gone, its absence is profoundly noticeable.
You know this very well if you’ve lost a cat. Luckily, while you can’t bring them back, you can honor their memory with these memorial gardens:
5. Camouflaged cats
Cats are often very stealthy. As natural hunters, many instinctively know how to hide when outdoors.
Was your cat good at disappearing the moment you let them out on the lawn? If so, perhaps you’d like to design a memorial garden that embodies this trait. Focus on including relatively tall plants, and hide a statue of a cat—or a few statues—in a strategic spot. The statue’s color could even blend in with its surroundings.
6. Cat silhouette
Blacks cats are known for their iconic silhouettes. That’s why many people don’t use basic headstones in cat memorial gardens. Instead, they use garden markers designed to look like a silhouette of a black cat. You could also include their name on the garden marker.
These markers come in many different poses. Some show cats confidently strutting across the lawn. Others depict cats playfully batting at some imaginary toy or object. Choose one that reminds you of your cat’s personality.
7. King or queen
Some cats hide when out on the lawn. Others sit almost majestically, as if they were surveying their kingdoms. Anyone who has ever loved a cat also knows cats sometimes act like royalty (Although that could be our fault for treating them like royalty.)
Because of this, some cat memorial gardens feature statues of cats perched atop small pedestals. Their owners place these statues in the front or back of the garden, allowing their “pet” to continue gazing out at its territory.
8. Include a bird feeder
Plenty of cats have no problem spending hours of the day sitting by a window and watching the birds. Sure, sometimes this is because they consider birds to be prey, but it’s also not uncommon for cats to watch birds simply because it entertains them.
Remember this when designing a memorial garden for your cat. You may want to place it in a spot on the lawn where they would have been able to see it from their favorite window. Along with a headstone and flowers, you could hang bird feeders, making sure your cat’s spirit always has something to watch.
Pet Memorial Garden Ideas for Fish, Birds, and Other Animals
Yes, dogs and cats may be the most popular types of pets, but they’re certainly not the only options. People choose many different types of animals as pets. When their pets die, these people may also want to celebrate their lives with memorial gardens. These are a few smart ways to do so:
9. Water garden for a fish
Some people don’t see the sense in creating a typical memorial garden for an animal that didn’t live on land. If you recently lost a pet fish, you could install a water garden instead.
The nature of water gardens varies. Some consist of small ponds surrounded by rocks and flowers. Others contain dynamic water features. Plenty of water gardens also have fish in them. Your familiarity with designing and building a water garden will determine how ambitious you want to be. Luckily, you’ll find plenty of guides online.
10. Birdbath
Headstones or grave markers for birds are unique in that they can serve a practical purpose. Along with symbolizing a deceased pet, they can also take the form of birdbaths.
This is naturally an appropriate feature to include in the center of a memorial garden for a bird. It will attract other birds to the garden, which is likely to appeal to the type of person who kept a bird as a pet.
11. Slithering along the branches
Pet snakes need love too! Fortunately, you can get pretty creative when designing a pet snake memorial.
Consider planting your garden near a tree branch. Or, you might want to plant a small tree in the garden itself. Many online retailers sell snake figurines that can wrap around a branch, giving the impression that a snake is slithering on a tree over the garden.
Of course, you could simply include a snake statue or figurine in the garden itself, but if it’s not noticeable, you might just scare a few unsuspecting guests.
Keep in mind that you don’t always need to be somber and serious when designing a pet memorial garden. If you have a sense of humor, marking the garden with a novelty “Watch Out for Snakes!” sign might be an idea worth considering. Just confirm no local laws restrict you from making false claims about the presence of venomous animals.
12. Suspended spider
Not all pets need to be cuddly and cute! Just as some people prefer to keep snakes, others enjoy keeping spiders as pets.
This is another instance that gives you the opportunity to get crafty. Like the example above, you could plant your garden near a tree, with a fake spider suspended from one of the branches. The goal is to make it look like the spider is hanging from a thread of its web. You can make a fake spider yourself if you’re crafty, or purchase one online.
Remembering Best Friends
The loss of a pet is always difficult. A loved one doesn’t need to be human to be worth mourning.
With these pet memorial gardens, you can keep your pet’s spirit alive in your memory. Keep them in mind if you’re looking for ways to memorialize your pet.