Mitch and Roxanne Huggins, who run an insurance agency for the self-employed in Billings, weren't looking for a second business.
However, when Roxanne went back to her hometown of Fort Collins, Colo., for a class reunion, she united with a friend who had opened a pet crematorium where business was booming.
While spending three days studying her friend's operation, Huggins ran into a client who said he was from Montana.
"I'm from Montana, too," she said.
"Where?"
"Billings," she replied.
"Me, too," he replied. "I just brought my dog down."
Tapping into people willing to drive a beloved dog to Colorado for a private cremation struck Roxanne as a business opportunity.
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She was comfortable with the topic of death because it was an industry she grew up with.
Her parents ran the Casper Monument Company in Wyoming. Her brother and sister-in-law, Rick and Larina Potter, run Rick's Rocks, which sells customized monuments.
"I came home and said, 'Guess what, Mitch? We're opening a pet crematorium,' " she said.
After a year of work, on Dec. 1 they opened A Treasured Friend Pet Crematory and Monument Co. The business is in a remodeled home in downtown Billings at 313 N. 34th St., right off Division Street. The Huggins main business is insurance. Roxanne is state manager for Mega Life and Health, specializing in insurance for self-employed people.
Both businesses fit the couple's need to help people, Mitch said. "We're both compassionate people and want the opportunity to help put a closure to a bad situation for other people," Roxanne said.
Other choices
There is at least one pet cemetery in Billings and several businesses that offer animal cremation services, both mass cremations and individual. But the Hugginses may have the only business that specializes in individual pet cremations, so that your pet's ashes aren't mixed with the ashes of another animal.
Mitch said his wife's brother in Casper also makes one-of-a-kind rocks or tombstones for pets. Using the same sandblasting techniques he uses on human tombstones, Potter can etch the picture of a dog or cat and the pet's name on the rock. A hole is drilled in the bottom to hold all or part of the remains.
A rock monument offers mobility for an increasingly foot-loose society where burying a pet in the backyard means separation someday. "One client told me, 'A monument doesn't do me a lot of good because I'm moving,' " Huggins said.
Prices vary according to weight. Pets under 25 pounds, including pocket pets like hamsters, are $45 to $75 to cremate. Middle-sized pets make up the middle price range. Large pets 101 pounds to 125 pounds cost $125. More than 125 pounds is figured at $1.25 per pound.
Money isn't as big an issue with people who love their pets as the strong emotions, he said. "Before you weren't allowed to grieve. Now it's OK to grieve. The pet is part of the family," he said. "Now it's going to be OK to cremate."
The oven
Out back of the house, A Treasured Friend has a metal building holding the oven, a shiny stainless-steel structure that Huggins said is state-of-the-art.
He pointed to a camera at the top of the smokestack. "If there ever is any smoke or odor, it shuts off," he said. "There's no fire danger whatsoever. They cool that exhaust down to nothing." When the furnace is going full blast at 1,550 degrees Fahrenheit, you can touch the outside.
The Hugginses added another feature, a $3,000 processor so bones can be turned into ash and scattered on the wind.
The business doesn't do mass or batch cremations, like some. Individual pets are given name cards. "They will get their own dog back," Mitch said. The manufacturer in Florida who installed the oven told the Hugginses they'll be adding a viewing window next because some people want to watch the process.
A Treasured Friend offers what appears to be a unique pickup service for individual pet owners - skipping the dreaded trip to the vet. "They can say goodbye in their comfortable home. I'll take it to the vet and bring the body here," Mitch said.
Some of Mitch and Roxanne's neighbors raised objections, but Mitch said the lot is zoned commercial and that means crematoriums are allowed. "I don't have hard feelings about it because they didn't know the process," he said.
Sixteen blocks away, also in a residential neighborhood, is a human crematory at Cremation or Funeral Gallery, he said. Human crematoriums cannot take pets and visa versa.
Billings Mayor Chuck Tooley helped with the bureaucratic red tape. "Tooley was instrumental in this," he said. "I've never met him before, but I'll brag him up to anybody."
Urns and memorials
The pair, married for seven years, are passionate about walleye fishing and qualified for last summer's Cabela's National Team Championships in Escanaba, Mich. While there, they were handed a bagful of gifts and promotional materials, including an ad for Hoegh Pet Casket Co., whose pet urns they now sell in Billings.
There are Amish urns, clock urns and cat and dog-shaped urns and wooden urns built by a Billings craftsman. Pointing to a pretty wooden urn made in town, Mitch said, "That's the one Roxanne wants to be buried in."
In the first month in business, Mitch said they've handled half-a-dozen pets and he's already hearing touching stories. "One man said, 'My cat's been run over by a car. I put the cat back with its brother and sister, so they can see he's gone. I'll bring him in tomorrow,' " he said.
Other options
Some people are even hiring taxidermists to stuff their favorite pet and techniques for freeze drying a pet have been developed. Cats can also be cloned. For a $50,000, you can get a replica of your favorite feline. Most people, though, stick with the tried-and-true and the affordable when their pet dies.
A Treasured Friend said it is the only Billings pet crematorium specializing in individual pets. Moore Lane Veterinary Hospital has been offering cremation for 20 years and also handles individual pet cremations.
About eight years ago, Laurel East Pet Hospital started a small crematorium called Faithful Friends to handle its clients' dead pets. Last year, they expanded, adding a large crematorium. They handle business from local veterinarians, so-called "batch" cremations involving several animals at a time whose owners don't want individual remains, but who don't want their pet put in the landfill. Faithful Friends also offers individual cremations.
Linda Hull manages the Faithful Friends cremations, a business she became interested in when her two dogs died in the same week. Even though a pet may be old or sick, she said the families are never prepared. Cremation loses its spookiness when someone understands the process. "It's really interesting when you see it from the inside, it's not so scary," Hull said.
The Billings Animal Shelter cremates the 2,500 or so unwanted or abandoned animals it euthanizes each year. The shelter also handles some animals from vets, but does not do individual cremations.
People who want to bury their pets in an officially designated cemetery have only one choice in the Billings area. In 1998, Yellowstone Valley Memorial Park at 3605 Grand Ave., set up a pet cemetery and so far has buried between 55 to 60 pets. The pet plot costs $115, the grave opening and closing is another $90 and a casket can run $65 to $250.
In the Bozeman area, two crematoriums exist: All Paws Great & Small and At Home On the Range, 20 miles west of town, which also offers horse burial in a pasture.
A pet no more
Once dogs were used for hunting and protection of the clan. Today they are as likely to be considered pseudo kids in a family.
Americans spend billions each year on caring for an estimated 65 million domesticated dogs and nearly 17 million cats, according to The Humane Society of the United States. Dog lovers who have at least one pooch make up 39 percent of U.S. households. Thirty-four percent of American homes have at least one cat.
The Hugginses, who live by Four Dances in Lockwood, have four horses, an English bulldog, an Amazon green parrot and two cats. A chameleon, Olivia, lies frozen in a freezer waiting for cremation.
Mitch and his half Arabian and half Tennessee Walker have spent their lives together and he's as emotional as his clients. "My horse isn't going to a rendering plant," he said "I love my horse."
That option no longer exists in Billings since the rendering plant has closed. The only choices for such a large animal are burying the horse in the country, taking it to the landfill or cremation, a service offered by A Treasured Friend and the Faithful Friends in Laurel.
When pets get old and are ready to die, most owners have a tough time dealing with the loss and will need help, Mitch said. "This is neat. We're helping people. We're hearing stories," he said. "We're enjoying this."
Jan Falstad can be contacted at (406) 657-1306 or at jfalstad@billingsgazette.com.