Funeral home provides resting place for both pets and owners

Losing a pet is hard, but one Mississippi funeral is offering a shared space for pet and pet owners to live for eternity.

Natchez Trace Funeral Home said they are the first to own a columbarium where the ashes of a pet and their owner can be laid to rest side by side, WLBT-TV reported .

“We’ve actually called it the footprints and paws,” said funeral home consultant Brittany Maugh, while introducing the newly installed columbarium.

Most cemeteries only allow pets or humans, never both in the same section.

Funeral director Michael Hudgins said there’s been a long time demand for a co-existing area. He said he thought it would be a great idea to set aside a place where the home could accommodate those wishes.

The columbarium is seven sections high and has 12 sections on each level. Hudgins said the columbarium allows for a cremated individual and their pet or pets to be in one single compartment.

Maugh said she’s happy to bring it to the funeral home.

“My cats are, and extension to, they’re exactly like my children. I take care of them, I feed them, I give them water, so therefore they need to be memorialized the same way you would a human,” Maugh said.