Pet Memorial Pillow From Your Photo

When a pet dies the house changes shape. The bowl comes up, the lead stays on the hook for a while, and the spot on the sofa stays empty in a way that is hard to explain to anybody who has not been through it.

A memorial pillow is a small correction to that. Something in the room again, at roughly the right size, that can sit where they used to sit.

It is not a keepsake box

Most pet memorial products are designed to be put away. A framed paw print, an engraved plaque, an urn on a high shelf. They are lovely and they are all slightly ceremonial, which means they get placed somewhere and then not touched.

A printed cushion is the opposite. It gets used. People sleep with them, put them on the chair the dog was not allowed on, and take them in the car. That is the point rather than a side effect.

There is no right time

Some people order within days. Some order on the first anniversary, or years later when they finally feel able to look at the photographs. Both are completely normal and neither needs explaining to us.

This is the part that worries people most, so here is the honest version.

The photographs from the last months are often the worst ones. Taken in a hurry, indoors, of an animal who had stopped posing. Meanwhile the good photographs are from years earlier, and people feel strange about using those.

Use whichever one you want to look at. There is no correct answer, and plenty of people choose a photograph from the middle of a pet's life rather than the end of it.

What we can work with

• The original file from a camera roll, rather than a screenshot or anything forwarded through a messaging app
• Phone photographs from the last several years, which are almost always enough
• Older printed photographs, rephotographed flat in daylight with the phone held directly above them
• Slightly blurred or dim images, more often than you would think, because the cut outline does a lot of the work

If the only photograph you have will not hold up, we tell you in the preview before you pay rather than printing it and hoping. That is a conversation, not a refusal, and we will usually suggest a different size or crop that works.

Cut to their outline

The shape follows the animal, so it reads as them rather than as a cushion with a photo on it. Most memorial orders choose this, and the reason people give is that the silhouette is what they recognise from across a room.

Left as a square

Quieter, and it sits on a sofa without inviting comment from visitors. Some people want the reminder to be private rather than the first thing anybody asks about, and a square cushion does that.

Size, honestly

People often want life size and then find it is a lot. The middle size is the one most memorial orders settle on, because it can be held. The largest is right for a big dog if the point is to fill the space they used to fill.

The smallest works for something else entirely: a pillow that travels, goes in a car, or goes to a child's bed.

Both sides print

At no extra cost, so two photographs from different years is a common choice. So is the animal on one side and a plain colour on the other, for people who want to be able to turn it over on a hard day.

A large share of these are bought by friends and family rather than by the owner, and there are a few things worth knowing.

Getting the photograph

Most people have posted photographs of their pet somewhere, and those files are usually compressed. If you can, ask a mutual friend or a family member for an original rather than saving one from a profile. If you have to ask the owner directly, the surprise is usually worth less than getting the right photograph.

Timing

There is no rule. Some people want something immediately and some cannot look at a photograph for months. If you are unsure, the first anniversary is a safer moment than the first week.

Say it is a memorial

Put it in the notes when you order. Memorial pieces are handled personally rather than moving through the usual queue, and it costs nothing extra. It also means nobody sends a cheerful automated email about your order at a bad moment.

Send it to them directly

Put their address at checkout. If you would rather hand it over yourself, order it to your own address instead and check the preview carefully first.

• Three days to make, counted from when you approve the preview
• Tracked shipping after that, normally four to eight business days
• From $25, with no minimum order
• Machine washable, cold water and a gentle cycle

If it arrives wrong

If what arrives does not match the preview you approved, we reprint it. That matters here more than on any other order, which is why the preview stage is not rushed.

More than one

Families often want one each, and there is no bulk tier to reach, so three costs three times one. Each is treated as its own order with its own preview, and each can go to a different address.

• Memorial pillows, for a person rather than a pet
• Custom pet pillows, the general guide to printing any animal
• Custom dog pillows, including how to photograph a dark coated dog
• Custom cat pillows, and why the outline matters so much with cats