Paw print keepsakes in Bourbonnais: timing, methods and costs
About 540 households in Bourbonnais lose a dog or cat each year, by our estimate. A clear paw print, taken at home or by your vet, is often the keepsake people are most glad to have.
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Bourbonnais, Illinois
How owners in Bourbonnais get a paw print
Bourbonnais yards are often roomy, and families here tend to favor garden memorials: an engraved stone near the back fence, a flowering crabapple set out in April, or a birdbath with a small plaque. Inside, a hardwood box or a frame holding the collar works well. Ashes come home sealed, so you can take all the time you need to choose.
With Olivet students and faculty in town, some Bourbonnais pet owners live far from their families and want keepsakes they can carry: a pendant with a trace of ash, a small engraved box, a glass charm. Others divide ashes among relatives across the state. Prints of paws, a nose impression or a clipped tuft of fur must all be requested before cremation.
One advantage of a town like Bourbonnais is that people know each other. Your vet team has probably met your pet many times and will understand why a print matters. Small practices often keep a clay kit on the shelf for exactly this. If they don't, ask whether you can bring your own and take the print together in a quiet room.
Bourbonnais is home to about 17,658 people, the 145th-largest of the 151 Illinois communities we cover. Some of the providers who serve Bourbonnais are based about 50 miles away in Chicago, the nearest larger centre, so collection times reflect that drive.
Families in Bourbonnais often end up using a provider from Kankakee (6 miles), Frankfort (22 miles) and Park Forest (23 miles). That is normal: crematories serve a radius, not a single town, and the drive is priced into collection.
Our estimate
6,500
How many dog- or cat-owning households Bourbonnais has (estimate)
How we calculated this
17,658 ÷ 2.5 = 7,063 households; × 53% (dog) + 39% (cat) = 6,500. Homes are counted once however many pets they keep.
Our estimate
540
dog and cat deaths per year in Bourbonnais, our estimate
How we calculated this
6,500 dog/cat-owning homes ÷ average lifespan (dog: 12.69 yrs + cat: 11.18 yrs) ≈ 540 a year. Treat it as a minimum.
53%[1]
53% of US households own a dog, which is about 71 million households.
12.69 years[2]
US dogs have an average life expectancy at birth of 12.69 years.
39%[3]
39% of US households own a cat, which is about 53 million households.
11.18 years[4]
US cats seen at Banfield hospitals have an average life expectancy at birth of 11.18 years.
The published sources behind those figures are American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry and Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science.
Ashes, graves and the print that comes first
About 60.2%[5] of people in Illinois are cremated, so cremation and burial are both common. Pet owners are split the same way: some bury at home or in a pet cemetery, others choose cremation. Either way, a print should be taken first. With a burial you usually have more time and can do it yourself; with cremation, ask the vet or crematory when you book.
That Illinois rate is a human one, published by NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024). We quote it for Bourbonnais only as a pointer to how families here already think about cremation.
Heat, humidity, cold and drying times
Plaster and cold don't mix well. Plaster sets more slowly in a cold room, and if the water in it freezes before it cures, the cast turns chalky and crumbles. In January, February, March, November and December, mix plaster with lukewarm water, let it set somewhere warm indoors and never leave a curing cast in a car, porch or shed overnight. The same goes for air-dry clay.
Indoor heating in January, February, March, November and December makes the air in Bourbonnais homes very dry, which is its own problem for clay. A print left near a radiator, wood stove or forced-air vent can shrink unevenly and split along the thin toe edges. Dry it in a cooler room, away from heat sources, and lay a slightly damp cloth loosely over it for the first day to slow things down.
What owners in Bourbonnais typically pay for a print
Engraving is the add-on that surprises people. By our estimate, name-and-dates engraving adds about 36%[6] to the price of a mid-priced wooden urn, and a paw print costs extra again. Before you pay for either in Bourbonnais, check your pet insurance: some wellness add-ons reimburse end-of-life costs, and one plan's add-on could pay up to $650 toward cremation, burial and keepsakes[7]. Read the policy wording, then ask for an itemized quote.
Prices for Bourbonnais track the wider Illinois market, so use the Illinois price table as your baseline and the services page to see what is included.
Free tool
Memorial budget planner
Add up cremation, urn, keepsakes and a farewell so the total holds no surprises.
Rules in Illinois that touch on keepsakes
There are no rules about taking a paw print; it's yours to do at home, at the clinic or at the crematory. Where Illinois does have rules is what happens next: whether your pet can be buried at home and where ashes can be scattered. Those choices can affect your print too, for example if you want it set into a garden stone or a grave marker.
Illinois keeps an official directory of local governments; use it to reach the county or city office that covers Bourbonnais.
Start with the Illinois rules, which cover burial, scattering and oversight for the whole state, and treat Bourbonnais's local ordinances as a possible extra layer.
Your paw print plan for Bourbonnais
- Tell your child what's happening in plain words, and ask whether they'd like to help with the print. Our guide to print-making with children suggests roles for different ages.
- Give them a real job: rolling the clay, choosing the card color or writing the name.
- Let them press a hand or fingerprint beside the paw if they want to.
- If the print is taken after death, leave the pressing to an adult or the vet, then let your child see the result.
- Make a copy for your child's room, so the original can stay somewhere safe.
- Come back to it later. One child wants it framed the same week; another won't look at it for months.
Ways families in Bourbonnais keep a print close
Wind-driven cold and repeated freeze-thaw in Kankakee County split porous outdoor ornaments within a few winters. Choose granite or bronze for anything outside, set level on compacted gravel. If you're planting a memorial tree, natives such as redbud or serviceberry handle the local climate well; plant in spring once the soil has dried, and mix any ashes thoroughly with soil first.
try the free planning tools, Our services overview lays out every option side by side, or compare your instinct with the poll results, go deeper with the guides or catch up on recent articles. Close to Bourbonnais we also cover Aurora, Elgin, Joliet and Chicago; the full list for Illinois and for the United States is a click away.
Reader polls
What would you choose?
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If you had to decide today, which aftercare would you choose for your pet?
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Free tools to help you plan
Memorial budget planner
Add up cremation, urn, keepsakes and a farewell so the total holds no surprises.
Paw print keepsake chooser
Match a print method to your pet's size, fur and the keepsake you want to keep.
Jewelry ash capacity guide
How much ash fits in pendants, rings and glass, and how many pieces one pet can fill.
Questions people ask
Which nearby towns can I compare with Bourbonnais?
The closest communities we cover are Kankakee (about 6 miles), Frankfort (about 22 miles) and Park Forest (about 23 miles). Providers based in those places often serve Bourbonnais too. Ask each one for a written total that includes collection, so the distance is priced in.
How do Illinois attitudes to cremation compare?
NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024) puts the Illinois human cremation rate at about 60.2%[5]. We show it on the Bourbonnais page because pet aftercare choices tend to track it: where cremation is normal for people, communal and private pet cremation are both easy to find.
Will I have to travel to Chicago to arrange things?
Not usually. Providers based in Chicago (roughly 50 miles from Bourbonnais) collect from here as a matter of routine, and the paperwork is done by email or phone. If you want to be present for a witnessed cremation, that is when the drive matters.
How does Bourbonnais's weather affect pet aftercare?
July is the hottest month in Bourbonnais, with average highs around 84°F, so prompt collection matters most then. Average lows drop below freezing in January, February, March, November and December, which can make digging a grave hard until spring.
How do I get a clear print from very furry paws?
Trim the tufts between the pads with blunt-tipped scissors, leaving the fur around the edge, which gives the print its outline. For cats, long-haired dogs and rabbits, an inkless kit or soft clay often works better than ink. Rabbits have no pads at all, so clay shows the long shape of the hind foot beautifully.
Is there free support if making the print brings up a lot of grief?
Yes. Veterinary schools run free pet loss lines: Cornell's Pet Loss Support Hotline is staffed by veterinary students trained by grief counselors[9], and Tufts runs a volunteer helpline on Monday to Thursday evenings, with 24-hour voicemail[10]. Strong feelings while you hold your pet's paw are normal, and some people find the print is the moment it all becomes real. Our guides also cover early grief.
Sources and our estimates
- [1] 53% of US households own a dog, which is about 71 million households. American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry, 2025.
- [2] US dogs have an average life expectancy at birth of 12.69 years. Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science - Banfield Pet Hospital life expectancy tables (13.3 million dogs, 2.4 million cats, 2013-2019), 2023.
- [3] 39% of US households own a cat, which is about 53 million households. American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry, 2025.
- [4] US cats seen at Banfield hospitals have an average life expectancy at birth of 11.18 years. Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science - Banfield Pet Hospital life expectancy tables (13.3 million dogs, 2.4 million cats, 2013-2019), 2023.
- [5] The NFDA projected Illinois's cremation rate at 60.2% for 2024. NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage), 2024.
- [6] Name-and-dates engraving adds about 36% to the price of a mid-priced wooden pet urn. Our estimate: midpoint engraving $32.50 ($25–$40) / midpoint wood urn $90 ($30–$150). How we calculate.
- [7] Embrace's Wellness Rewards add-on could reimburse up to $650 toward cremation, burial and keepsakes. Pet Insurance Review - Does Pet Insurance Cover Euthanasia? (Dec 2023), 2023.
- [8] The median price multiple of private (ashes returned) over communal cremation across 8 markets is about 2.0x, ranging from 1.25x (Tokyo) to 5.2x (Auckland). Our estimate: median(private_price / communal_price) same weight band: US CareCredit 51-70 lb midpoints (250/75) = 3.33x; Auckland 15-25 kg (445/85) = 5.24x; Norway 1-20 kg (3790/1190) = 3.18x; Singapore 10-20 kg (480/260) = 1.85x; Ontario 25-250 lb (549/279) = 1.97x; Tokyo 20-30 kg (38500/30800) = 1.25x; France 20 kg midpoints (200/95) = 2.11x; Germany range midpoints (270/145) = 1.86x. How we calculate.
- [9] Cornell's free Pet Loss Support Hotline (607-218-7457) is staffed by veterinary students trained by professional grief counselors. Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, 2026.
- [10] Tufts University's Pet Loss Support Helpline (508-839-7966) is free and volunteer-staffed, 6–9 pm ET Monday to Thursday, with 24-hour voicemail. Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, 2026.
Tell us about your pet's print
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