Getting your pet's paw print in Irving
About 7,900 households in Irving 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.
- Home kit or vet-taken: your choice
- Tips for heat, humidity and cold
- Ideas for jewelry, engraving and art
Irving, Texas
Who takes paw prints in Irving
In an Irving apartment or townhome, space is limited, so many families choose a compact urn that fits on a bookshelf, a framed paw print, or a slim pendant holding a pinch of ashes. Families in houses with yards sometimes add an engraved stone or a live oak planted in memory. If you expect to move, pick something sturdy and easy to pack.
Irving is one of the most diverse cities in Texas, with families whose traditions span South Asia, Africa, Latin America and beyond, and memorial customs vary widely. Some families prefer a small shrine with a photo and candle, others a simple urn or jewelry. Ask your provider early about paw prints and fur clippings, and about keepsake urns for relatives abroad.
If you'd like to compare, look a little further afield too. A ceramic studio, engraver or jeweler in Houston may be happy to turn your pet's print into a tile, a pendant or a framed piece. Many small makers take orders by email and post the finished work back, so distance matters less than whether you like their samples.
Irving's population is around 257,076, the 12th-largest of the 325 Texas communities we cover. Dallas, roughly 9 miles off, is the closest larger centre, and a share of the providers who cover Irving run from there.
The closest communities we cover are Euless (8 miles), Farmers Branch (9 miles) and Dallas (9 miles, a larger centre). Providers serving those towns often travel to Irving too, so it can be worth asking them for a quote.
Our estimate
94,500
Estimated dog- or cat-owning households in Irving
How we calculated this
257,076 ÷ 2.5 = 102,830 households; × 53% (dog) + 39% (cat) = 94,500. Multi-pet homes count once.
Our estimate
7,900
dog and cat deaths per year in Irving, our estimate
How we calculated this
94,500 dog/cat-owning homes ÷ average lifespan (dog: 12.69 yrs + cat: 11.18 yrs) ≈ 7,900 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.
None of the figures on this this page are ours alone: they rest on Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science and American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry.
Burial, cremation and paw prints in Texas
On cremation, Texas sits in the middle, at about 55.7%[5] of human deaths, and for many families the choice is shaped by faith as much as by cost. If your beliefs lean toward burial, or you're simply unsure how you feel about cremating a pet, a paw print sits comfortably with either path. It involves nothing more than a gentle press into clay or onto card, and it leaves your pet exactly as they were.
Source for the Texas number: NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024). Nobody publishes a pet cremation rate for Irving, so the human figure is the best local signal available.
Seasons in Irving and a print that lasts
Summers in Irving are hot: August averages highs around 96°F. Heat is hard on air-dry clay. In dry heat the surface skins over and cracks before the inside has set, so dry your print slowly indoors, away from sunny windows and air vents, and turn it every few hours. In humid heat the opposite happens: the clay stays soft for days, so be patient and don't try to speed it up in the oven unless the kit says it's bakeable.
If your pet dies at home during June, July, August and September, keeping them cool comes first and the print second. Move them to the coolest room, lay them on a towel over a hard floor and take the print within the first few hours, before the body stiffens. If collection is coming soon, ask the team to wait while you finish, or ask the crematory to take the print at intake.
Paw print costs around Irving, line by line
Some providers include the print in the package. A Virginia crematory, for example, includes a paw print and a fur clipping with every private cremation package, which run $189–$300[6]. Others charge separately: a Northeast crematory network lists $49 for ink paw prints, $76 for a clay or silver-clay print and $111 framed[7]. When you compare quotes in Irving, check which approach each provider takes.
For a line-by-line price table, see the Texas overview; for what's included in each option, see our services.
Free tool
Memorial budget planner
Add up cremation, urn, keepsakes and a farewell so the total holds no surprises.
Local rules worth knowing in Texas
Nothing in Texas restricts a paw print, a nose print or a lock of fur. What local rules do shape is where ashes may go, and some favorite places, such as parks, beaches and trails, need the landowner's permission. If that permission is hard to get, a print can carry the memory of the place instead: frame it beside a photo taken there, or have the trail's name engraved under the paw.
To find your county or city office in Texas, start with the official Texas local government directory.
The rules that apply across Texas (home burial, scattering and who oversees pet cremation) are summarized on our Texas page. Irving may add its own conditions, so check with the city or county before digging.
Your paw print plan for Irving
- Choose one calm afternoon and do all the pets together, beginning with whichever one is least bothered by handling.
- Label everything before you start: write each name on the reverse of its card, or scratch an initial into the base of each clay disc.
- Use a separate ink pad or wipe for each animal and clean every paw straight away, so no one licks ink off anyone else.
- Keep each turn short, a couple of minutes per pet, with a treat after every press.
- Make a combined piece if you like: several paws on one large card or clay slab makes a family portrait.
- Store the set together and date each one on the reverse, so that years from now none of them has gone astray.
Ways families in Irving keep a print close
Lake Carolyn in Las Colinas, the Trinity River greenbelt and the Campion Trail are the green spaces many Irving residents know most closely with a pet at their side, and some hope to return a little of the ashes there. City parks and river corridors have their own rules on scattering, so check before you go. Plenty of people keep the urn at home and bring only a spoonful in a small keepsake.
or compare your instinct with the poll results, go deeper with the guides or catch up on recent articles, Compare every option on our services page, use the free tools before you ring anyone. Close to Irving we also cover Fort Worth, Dallas, San Antonio and El Paso; the full list for Texas and for the United States is a click away.
Reader polls
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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
Is cremation common in Texas?
For people, yes: about 55.7%[5] of Texas deaths end in cremation, according to NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024). Nobody publishes the same figure for pets, but in our experience pet choices in Irving follow the human pattern closely, so cremation is the default most families here start from.
Where are the providers that serve Irving actually based?
Some are local, and some run from Dallas, about 9 miles away. That is normal for a city this size. What matters is the collection time they quote for Irving and whether the drive is priced into the total, so ask both up front.
Which nearby towns can I compare with Irving?
The closest communities we cover are Euless (about 8 miles), Farmers Branch (about 9 miles) and Dallas (about 9 miles). Providers based in those places often serve Irving too. Ask each one for a written total that includes collection, so the distance is priced in.
When is the hardest time of year to arrange a burial in Irving?
There is no frozen-ground season here; average lows stay above freezing all year. The other pressure point is August, when highs around 96°F mean a body needs cooling and collecting quickly.
How do I get my pet's paw print in Irving?
You have three options. Take it yourself at home with clay or an ink kit, ideally while your pet is still well. Ask your vet or in-home euthanasia vet to take one at the appointment. Or ask the pet crematory to take one at intake, before cremation. Whichever you choose, ask for it in advance and check the print is clear before your pet leaves.
Why did my air-dry clay paw print crack?
Usually because it dried too fast. In hot, dry weather, or near a heater or sunny window, the outside shrinks before the inside has set, and the thin edges of the toes crack first. Next time, dry it slowly indoors at room temperature, loosely covered with a cloth for the first day. Small cracks can be filled with a little fresh clay and smoothed with a damp finger.
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 Texas's cremation rate at 55.7% for 2024. NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage), 2024.
- [6] Heavenly Paws Cremations in Chantilly, Virginia, sells private cremation packages at $189 (temporary container), $225 (wooden urn) and $300 (wooden photo urn), each including a paw print and fur clipping. Heavenly Paws Cremations – Packages, 2026.
- [7] 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.
- [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.
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