Beloved Companions Honors Animals with Dignified, Individualized Aftercare
- Maria O'Donnell
- 7 days ago
- 7 min read
New West Hartford Location Available to Service Precious Pets
by Maria O'Donnell
Staff Writer
Fur babies are precious to their pet parents. How much they’re loved in life can reflect how they’re cared for after they pass away. There are options to handling this difficult time with a loving, well thought-out process. Beloved Companions has been this most unique option offered in all of Connecticut since 2012.
With central-state locations in West Hartford, Avon, and New Britain, Beloved Companions, LLC Pet Funeral & Cremations Services treats pet companions like family members with their aftercare services. All three are considered funeral homes with New Britain, the parent company, also serving as the crematorium.
According to Founder and Aftercare Director Dave Olson, “nothing like it exists in Connecticut—we are the highest level of care” due to the dignity and respect they provide deceased pets. “Our services are consistent with human arrangements.” And they are offered seven days a week.
Recalling advice from years ago, Olson repeated his friend’s words upon starting the business: “‘Do what’s best for the pet parents and pet companion.’ That’s what we’re all about. I wanted to provide the best end-of-life experience during a very traumatic time.”
If a family arrives with their deceased pet, he or his other staff members will assist in taking the pet into their building and place it on a private chapel/viewing room table with a plush blanket. The pet family is asked to fill out an intake form, a pet companion release and cremation authorization form, that details the family’s wishes for their pet.
The form includes personal details of the pet’s name, age, weight, gender, date and time of passing and where. Family members have options of having cremains returned to them or not, can have pawprints and hair clippings preserved, and can spend final time with their pet on-site in the chapel/viewing room. Once in the room after payment is made, and they’re ready to say final farewells and/or prayers, Olson closes the door, dims the lights, and might play a soft rendition of Amazing Grace, if desired.
Since pets’ passings are so varied, Olson has multiple options to help grieving families, even before the pet has passed. If the family needs to euthanize their pet, Olson’s other business, the in-home euthanasia service Pawz at Peace, can provide a partner veterinarian to go to the family’s home to compassionately put the pet to sleep.
Olson or his staff is on hand to bring the pet to their business van for removal. But first, the family is invited to view the pet a final time to say farewell. He will leave them alone at the back of the van until they’re finished, then transport the pet to New Britain’s crematorium, and will first provide all the aftercare wishes the family has noted on the release and authorization form.
Two veterinary hospitals (Veterinary Emergency Center, Canton, and Winsted Hospital for Animals, Barkhamsted) are affiliates of Beloved Companions and will contact Olson directly if a pet owner has a dying pet in need of Olson’s services. Beloved Companions will do free vet removals from any vet in Connecticut, however, Olson noted, adding that the home removal does incur an additional fee. Beloved Companions also has mobile vets as affiliates who use Olson’s services.
Olson encourages pre-planning for a pet’s aftercare, especially when it’s apparent and imminent. He said, “When it’s arranged, it’s seamless, rather than waiting till the eleventh hour when it’s an emotional, tough decision.” Olson also emphasized the individual attention each animal receives. The pet never leaves the company’s hands, no matter where it’s taken from—home, vet, funeral home—then brought to the crematorium and back to the funeral home to give the family their pet’s ashes.
“People want to know who’s providing [the services],” said Olson. “They need transparency.” Most times, people don’t even know any of the details. “We’re the only provider in CT with both services, euthanasia and cremation.”
Otherwise, third party, out-of-state services handle things for mobile vets, for example, and therein lies the disconnect of the pet’s handling.
When people want that connectedness in their pet’s aftercare, Beloved Companions provides it. “I thank them for their trust and confidence,” Olson said. “We’re a community-based business and the only euthanasia service in CT where the pet won’t leave our care till the cremains are ready to go home.”
Olson credits his staff as “second to none; they’re great people—selfless, compassionate, and caring. I’m blessed.” They include New Britain Director, Administrator and nephew Justin Olson and Avon Director Peaches Miller. West Hartford opened just eight months ago, but already, Olson is looking into opening another location, possibly in North Haven to “assist families down that corridor.” The location is a half-hour from the New Britain location and a half-hour from the shore.
Olson added that Beloved Companions also provides aftercare for more than cats and dogs. Anything from “exotics to large pet companions to parakeets, turtles, rats, snakes, ferrets—the list goes on,” he said.
One of Beloved Companions’ clients discovered the business through Olson’s post on Facebook. Marla Rubenstein is a life-long lover of animals.
“I saw Dave’s post about a new business for funeral arrangements for pets,” she said. “I wondered if someone like that would be compassionate to my cause.”
Rubenstein’s cause? Caring for stray animals. “I have a passion for helping animals, especially the homeless, abandoned, abused and neglected. It’s devastating – I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said.
After she retired from the education system a few years ago, she created Marla’s Community Medical Fund for Strays where donors could send checks directly to CT Veterinary Center (the West Hartford vet she goes to for personal use) where injured strays would receive treatment. She explained, “The fund gives strays a chance to survive.” From there, the pets are treated and put up for adoption.
“I made a cold call [to Olson],” Rubenstein said. “He was so receptive and kind and said, ‘I’d like to support your cause.’ He reached out.” He was her first of three businesses who became monthly donors, which gives her “peace of mind; every month, there’s something in the fund.”
A serendipitous relationship began then. Late last year, after Rubenstein did her regular Facebook searches for strays to help, she intervened for two cats she named Alfie and Luther. On separate occasions she had the two different caretakers take them to CT Veterinary Center, but neither cat survived their afflictions. Within a “super eerie” 24-hour period, according to Rubenstein, the cats passed away.
“I reached out to Dave,” she said. “I wanted to give business back to Dave because of what he gives to me. I like his business model—the strays never leave his care. Other cremation services don’t keep the pet in custody; it’s transported elsewhere. [Olson’s] model isn’t mass cremation; it’s individual cremation. This model is very valuable.”
Rubenstein emphasized Olson’s professionalism and compassion. She recalled being in the Beloved Companions parking lot “in tears. He handed me the ashes in a beautiful bag with a certificate of ownership. They weren’t strays that didn’t matter; they were two precious lives he cared for very lovingly. He was very comforting and soothing.”
Both Olson and Avon Beloved Companions Director Peaches Miller helped Rubenstein prepare for the Facebook Live memorial service she planned to hold at Fairview Cemetery (ceremony only, no burial there). Rubenstein noted “how beautiful a tribute Dave gave in his presentation for their service” by providing boxes of the cats’ ashes, as well as their pawprints in clay and ink.
Rubenstein described the Facebook Live service. “I had a minister lead the ceremony. Peaches helped find the minister.” Both Miller and Olson “went above and beyond. We divided the ashes among everyone who loved [the cats].” Rubenstein noted Olson’s soft-spoken gentleness, which prompted her elderly mother to declare him “a kind man.”
His kindness extends to her stray animal community medical fund. “Dave stepped up when I really needed business donors. His kindness makes this possible.” Rubenstein also raises funds by selling donated, gently used items on Marketplace, such as home goods and clothes. “The buyers know all funds go to saving strays,” of which she has saved 65, to date.
Rather than use GoFundMe or PayPal, Rubenstein has checks made out and mailed directly to CT Veterinary Center. “I’m not a 501c3,” she noted. “It’s nothing formal—a citizen’s effort.” WHL
Marla’s Community Medical Fund for Strays (https://communitymedicalfund.wixsite.com/donate) will participate in Community Cause Night at Hawk’s Landing Country Club in Southington on June 10.
More information for Beloved Companions can be found at BelovedCompanions.com and its sister company, Pawz at Peace, at www.pawzatpeace.com.
Before You Decide
Your pet’s legacy deserves to be honored with the warmth, care, and respect they brought into your life.
Dignity Package: Memorials & Keepsakes, according to the Beloved Companions pamphlet
· Transport from place of passing to our facility
· Individual cremation
· A custom urn
· A cremation certificate
· A clay or ink paw print impression
· A call from Beloved Companions to the pet parent as soon as possible to arrange the pet’s return home
· A laminated “Rainbow Bridge” poem