After a year off, DeJohn Pet Services’ annual Blessing of the Animals and Memorial Service returned on Oct.10, as community members brought their furry friends to receive a blessing from a minister, and honor other pets who have passed away.
DeJohn Pet Services is located on the campus of DeJohn-Flynn-Mylott Funeral Home at 28890 Chardon Road in Willoughby Hills. The pet services department offers memorial, cremation and burial services for pets of all kinds.
According to Sherri DiPietro, manager of DeJohn Pet Services, the Blessing of the Animals has been a yearly tradition for over a decade. This year, the outdoor service offered pet owners a chance to come out and have their pets receive a blessing prayer from Eric Leissa, a pastor from Body of Christ Community church in Willoughby.
“We are gathered here to give thanks for our animal companions that are with us today,” Leissa told the crowd. “May we appreciate the warmth, humor, and loyalty that touches our hearts in ways beyond compare. We come together today to ask for God’s grace as we care for our pets who sometimes struggle with illness or age.”
Leissa and DiPietro read scriptures from the Bible related to animals, various pet remembrance poems and the The Fransiscan Blessing, inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals.
Along with the blessings, attendees were also able to honor the memory of beloved pets whom they had lost. DiPietro and her team wrote down the names of pets who had passed away on a rainbow balloon, which was released at the conclusion of the service.
Many of the pet parents in attendance at the service, such as Sue Handley-Stavar, had utilized DeJohn Pet Services in the past for memorials and burial or cremation services. Handley-Stavar said she appreciated all of the personal touches the DeJohn Pet Services staff put into the care of her beloved “heart dog” Cody, who passed away earlier this year.
DiPietro explained that DeJohn Pet Services was started in 2009 by CEO Ross DeJohn Jr., and her own dog was one of the first pets to receive memorial services when the department was just beginning to get off the ground. DiPietro said she felt the idea of offering pet owners many of the same options as human funerals have to care for and memorialize their animals after they die was a well-needed service.
“I was so inspired by how different this was than traditional veterinary services for death, so I said ‘I want to work for you,'” she recalled.
Over the years, DiPietro has come up with many different keepsake ideas, including making memorial videos, pawprint and nose-print impressions in clay or with ink or creating angel wings out of fur.
“I look at them as kids — when I take care of somebody’s baby, it’s a child in a furry coat,” she said.
Of course, the services aren’t limited to just dogs and cats– DiPietro said she has cared for birds, turtles and other less traditional pets as well. She said all kinds of pets are welcomed, and their services are all given a personal touch.
“The things we have here are a mirror image of the human side,” DiPietro said.
