Paw and nose prints in Bloomfield Hills: a calm guide
Bloomfield Hills has an estimated 1,600 dog- or cat-owning households. If yours is one of them, a print taken now, or before cremation, is the keepsake you can't go back for.
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Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Arranging a paw print around Bloomfield Hills
Cranbrook's gardens and art academy give the area a strong design culture, and some local families commission a one-off piece: a hand-thrown urn, a glass orb with ashes swirled inside, or an engraved bronze plaque. For work like that, the artist needs only a few spoonfuls of ashes, so tell the provider early, along with any wish for a fur clipping or paw impression.
Space is rarely a limit in Bloomfield Hills, so memorials here range from a carved stone set among garden plantings to an urn on a library shelf to a ring or pendant worn daily. Take all the time you need over the choice. Ashes are perfectly safe in their temporary container, and plenty of people decide only once the first raw weeks have passed.
One advantage of a town like Bloomfield Hills 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.
With roughly 4,390 residents, Bloomfield Hills is the 61st-largest of the 63 Michigan communities we cover. Some of the providers who serve Bloomfield Hills are based about 20 miles away in Detroit, the nearest larger centre, so collection times reflect that drive.
Families in Bloomfield Hills often end up using a provider from Birmingham (3 miles, a larger centre), Pontiac (5 miles, a larger centre) and Troy (5 miles, a larger centre). That is normal: crematories serve a radius, not a single town, and the drive is priced into collection.
Our estimate
1,600
Bloomfield Hills: dog- or cat-owning households, our estimate
How we calculated this
4,390 ÷ 2.5 = 1,756 households; × 53% (dog) + 39% (cat) = 1,600. A household with several pets counts once.
Our estimate
130
Estimated dog and cat losses in Bloomfield Hills each year
How we calculated this
1,600 dog/cat-owning homes ÷ average lifespan (dog: 12.69 yrs + cat: 11.18 yrs) ≈ 130 a year. A floor, not a ceiling.
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.
We built the this numbers from Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science and American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry, and both are worth a look if you want the detail.
Cremation habits in Michigan and the print window
About 69.5%[5] of people who die in Michigan are cremated. With both burial and cremation common, you'll find pet cemeteries that set a print into a headstone and crematories that return one with the ashes. The print itself is the same either way. What changes is who takes it, so decide that early.
The Michigan figure comes from NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024). It describes people, not pets, so read it as a sign of local attitudes rather than a pet statistic.
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 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.
With 4 months of freezing average lows, Bloomfield Hills winters are hard on posted parcels too. If you're sending a clay print away to be cast in metal or scanned for jewelry, wrap it well, avoid shipping over a weekend and send a photo or scan first where the maker accepts one. Then the original never has to leave your warm house at all.
Budgeting for a print and what it becomes
A paw print is one of the least expensive keepsakes there is. Many US crematories sell it as a small add-on: one Arizona provider lists a clay paw impression at $10, a nose print at $10 and a laser-engraved paw print at $15[6], and across the US price lists we've checked, paw-print add-ons have a median of about $32[7]. Prices in Bloomfield Hills vary by provider, so ask whether a print is already included before you pay extra.
The Michigan price table breaks costs down by product; our services page explains what sits behind each line.
Free tool
Memorial budget planner
Add up cremation, urn, keepsakes and a farewell so the total holds no surprises.
What Michigan allows after your pet dies
Rules in Michigan mostly cover the practical side of a pet's death: where a body can be buried, how deep, and where ashes may be scattered. None of it stops you taking a print. It's worth knowing, though, because a print set into a stone often goes where the burial or ashes go, and a landlord or homeowners' association can have its own say.
Michigan keeps an official directory of local governments; use it to reach the county or city office that covers Bloomfield Hills.
Home burial and scattering are governed at the Michigan level first; our Michigan rules summary has the detail. Then check whether Bloomfield Hills or your HOA adds anything.
In order: the print, the aftercare, the keepsake
- For a horse, have the farrier out beforehand to trim the hoof and tidy it up. Clean the sole thoroughly and let it dry.
- Press the hoof into a thick slab of clay resting on a board, or coat the sole in non-toxic paint and set it down on stiff card. Ask a helper to keep the leg still while you do it.
- Keep the last shoe and a length of tail or mane hair, since plenty of owners later have the hair plaited or cast in resin.
- For a bird or a very small pet, choose the softest clay or an inkless sheet, and barely press at all. Clay picks up tiny toes best.
- For a fluffy cat or rabbit, go inkless so nothing ends up on fur they'll wash later; for rabbits especially, clay captures the long, narrow foot well.
- Dry and store every print indoors, then take a photo so any maker can use the picture, not the original.
Remembering your pet through their print
Oakland County winters bring repeated freeze-thaw swings that split cheap outdoor pieces. A garden memorial here should be solid granite, bronze or a natural fieldstone, set over compacted gravel so frost cannot lift one corner. If the marker will sit under trees, a darker stone hides moss and leaf staining better than pale marble or light concrete does over the years.
browse in-depth guides or recent articles, Every option Bloomfield Hills families choose between is on the services page, try the free planning tools, or see what other families chose in the poll results. If you live between Bloomfield Hills and Detroit, Warren, Lansing and Ann Arbor, either page applies. Every other community in Michigan, and all of the United States, is listed too.
Reader polls
What would you choose?
Vote anonymously and see how other readers answered. The results are live counts from people who visit this site, so they show real opinions, not a scientific sample.
What worries you most about taking a print yourself?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Who would you rather take the print?
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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
How do Michigan attitudes to cremation compare?
NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024) puts the Michigan human cremation rate at about 69.5%[5]. We show it on the Bloomfield Hills 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 Detroit to arrange things?
Not usually. Providers based in Detroit (roughly 20 miles from Bloomfield Hills) 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.
Is Bloomfield Hills big enough to have several pet aftercare providers?
Probably, on the numbers. By our estimate about 1,600 Bloomfield Hills households keep a dog or cat and around 130 lose one each year, which is enough steady demand to support more than one provider. We derive that from population (about 4,390), household size and national ownership and lifespan figures.
How does Bloomfield Hills's weather affect pet aftercare?
July is the hottest month in Bloomfield Hills, with average highs around 84°F, so prompt collection matters most then. Average lows drop below freezing in January, February, March and December, which can make digging a grave hard until spring.
What is a silver-clay paw print, and what does it cost?
Silver clay is a modeling clay made of fine silver particles and a binder. A jeweler presses your pet's paw, or a copy of it, into the clay, dries it and fires it in a kiln, which burns off the binder and leaves solid silver with the pad shapes intact. A Northeast US crematory network prices a clay or silver-clay paw print at $76[8]. Ask whether the piece is a direct impression or a scaled copy, and whether it comes as a pendant or a flat token.
Can I get a print of my bird's feet?
Yes, with care. Birds are light and their toes are delicate, so use very soft clay and the gentlest pressure, or an inkless kit with treated paper. Ink is best avoided because birds preen and may swallow it. An avian vet can help if your bird is nervous. The result is a lovely, delicate impression of the toes and scales.
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 Michigan's cremation rate at 69.5% for 2024. NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage), 2024.
- [6] Memorial add-ons at A Greener Place: $15 laser-engraved paw print, $10 clay paw impression, $10 nose print, $5 fur clipping. A Greener Place Pet Aquamation – Pricing, 2026.
- [7] Paw-print add-ons at US crematories have a median price of about $32, from $10 to $76. Our estimate: median of [$10 clay (AGP), $15 laser engraving (AGP), $49 ink (Final Gift), $76 clay (Final Gift)]. How we calculate.
- [8] Final Gift charges $49 for ink paw prints, $76 for a clay or silver-clay paw print, $111 framed, and $133 framed with a fur clipping; a fur clipping alone costs $23. Final Gift Pet Memorial Center – Memorial Products, 2026.
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