A paw print to keep, in Bluffdale
By our estimate, about 7,200 households in Bluffdale share their home with a dog or cat. Every one of those paws can be pressed into clay or ink, ideally long before goodbye. Here's how.
- Home kit or vet-taken: your choice
- Tips for heat, humidity and cold
- Ideas for jewelry, engraving and art
Bluffdale, Utah
Arranging a paw print around Bluffdale
Wind off the Point of the Mountain, hot summers and freezing winters all take a toll on outdoor pieces. Natural stone and bronze last, while lightweight resin decorations and painted signs tend to blow over or fade. Anchor anything tall, or choose a low, flat marker set into the ground. If the ashes stay indoors, weather doesn't matter at all, and the choice can come down to the room and your taste.
Bluffdale's roomy yards lend themselves to outdoor memorials: an engraved boulder near the barn, a tree planted by the pasture fence, or a small bench facing the Oquirrhs across the river. Families who moved here for the space often want a memorial that uses it. Indoors, a framed photo, a paw or hoof print, or a simple urn can sit on a shelf as well.
Small towns rarely have a pet memorial shop, but they nearly always have someone who engraves: a monument company that letters headstones, a trophy and awards shop, or a sign maker with a laser. Many will engrave a paw print from a clean scan onto slate, wood, metal or a garden stone. Take them a photo of your pet's print and ask whether they can reproduce the real pad shapes, not a generic clip-art paw.
About 19,506 people live in Bluffdale, which makes it the 49th-largest of the 52 Utah communities we cover. The nearest larger centre is Salt Lake City, about 20 miles (32 km) away, which is where some providers serving Bluffdale are based.
For a second opinion on price, Riverton (3 miles, a larger centre), Draper (4 miles, a larger centre) and Herriman (4 miles, a larger centre) are close enough that their providers cover Bluffdale routinely. Two written quotes tell you more than any price list.
Our estimate
7,200
How many dog- or cat-owning households Bluffdale has (estimate)
How we calculated this
19,506 ÷ 2.5 = 7,802 households; × 53% (dog) + 39% (cat) = 7,200. A household with several pets counts once.
Our estimate
600
Bluffdale families who lose a dog or cat each year (estimate)
How we calculated this
7,200 dog/cat-owning homes ÷ average lifespan (dog: 12.69 yrs + cat: 11.18 yrs) ≈ 600 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.
To check the figures yourself, see American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry and Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science.
How Utah thinks about cremation, and why prints matter
With about 46.1%[5] of people in Utah cremated, traditions here lean toward burial, and that often extends to pets. Whatever you choose, a print is the part you can do yourself, at home, with ordinary clay and a towel. It doesn't depend on local services, and it's the one keepsake that has to be made before anything else happens.
The Utah 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.
Weather in Bluffdale and your pet's print
If you've bought a print kit to keep for later, store it indoors, not in the garage. In Bluffdale, a garage can top 94°F in July and drop below freezing in January, and both extremes spoil supplies: heat dries out ink pads and clay, frost splits plaster bags and stiffens molding putty. Check the kit every few months, and replace the clay if it has hardened in the packet.
Home burial in Bluffdale runs to two different clocks. In January, February and December, frozen ground can make digging impossible, and some families keep their pet in a vet's cold storage until spring. In the heat of July, burial needs to happen quickly. Either way, the print belongs at the very start: before your pet goes into storage in winter, and within the first hours in summer.
Budgeting for a print and what it becomes
If the print is heading for jewelry, budget for the metal rather than the print. By our estimate, a typical sterling silver pet pendant costs about $190[6], and entry-level solid gold pieces at the same retailer cost about 15 times the silver equivalent[7]. Ask any maker in Bluffdale whether the quote includes the chain, a proof image before production and engraving on the back, because those three extras are where quotes differ most.
We keep the detailed Utah price table on one page so it stays current: see Utah prices.
Free tool
Memorial budget planner
Add up cremation, urn, keepsakes and a farewell so the total holds no surprises.
Burial, scattering and prints in Utah
Rules in Utah 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.
Not sure which office covers Bluffdale? The Utah local government directory is the official list.
The rules that apply across Utah (home burial, scattering and who oversees pet cremation) are summarized on our Utah page. Bluffdale may add its own conditions, so check with the city or county before digging.
Your paw print plan for Bluffdale
- If your pet dies unexpectedly at the clinic, ask for a few minutes alone with them before you go. Staff will almost always allow this, and many can fetch a print kit for you there and then.
- Say exactly what you want: clay, ink, a nose print or all three, and how many copies.
- If you can't face doing it yourself, ask a nurse or technician to take it while you wait outside, and to show it to you before you go.
- Get the crematory's name and your pet's reference number on paper from reception before you leave.
- If no print was taken, phone the crematory as early as you can the next day and request one at check-in.
- Leave the urn and the other extras for later. The print is the only decision that can't wait.
Remembering your pet through their print
Bluffdale families often span several generations, sometimes living on the same property. If children, parents and grandparents each hope to keep some ashes, say so on the first call so the remains come back ready to share rather than being divided at the kitchen counter. A main urn plus small keepsakes, such as pendants or tiny boxes, lets everyone keep a piece of the animal they shared.
try the free planning tools, look through our guides and the blog, Compare every option on our services page, or see what other families chose in the poll results. Close to Bluffdale we also cover Provo, West Valley City, Lehi and St. George; the full list for Utah and for the United States is a click away.
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.
Who would you rather take the print?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
What worries you most about taking a print yourself?
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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 does Bluffdale's weather affect pet aftercare?
July is the hottest month in Bluffdale, with average highs around 94°F, so prompt collection matters most then. Average lows drop below freezing in January, February and December, which can make digging a grave hard until spring.
Why does the Bluffdale page quote a human cremation rate?
Because it is the best local signal we have. NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024) reports about 46.1%[5] of Utah residents are cremated. There is no official pet equivalent, and inventing one would be worse than quoting a real, clearly labelled number.
Roughly how many pets die in Bluffdale each year?
Our estimate is around 600. It comes from Bluffdale's population (about 19,506), the average household size, the share of homes with a dog or cat (about 7,200 households here) and the average lifespan. It is arithmetic, not a count, so read it as a rough floor.
Where are the providers that serve Bluffdale actually based?
Some are local, and some run from Salt Lake City, about 20 miles away. That is normal for a town this size. What matters is the collection time they quote for Bluffdale and whether the drive is priced into the total, so ask both up front.
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.
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[9]. Ask whether the piece is a direct impression or a scaled copy, and whether it comes as a pendant or a flat token.
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 Utah's cremation rate at 46.1% for 2024. NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage), 2024.
- [6] The typical sterling silver pet cremation pendant costs about $190, based on the middle of three sellers' price points. Our estimate: median of [Urns.com median $129, Memorials.com midpoint of $87.95–$297.95 = $193, Final Gift sterling paw pendant $240]. How we calculate.
- [7] Entry-level solid 14k gold pet-ash pendants cost about 15 times entry-level sterling silver ones at the same retailer. Our estimate: $1,297.95 / $87.95 (Memorials.com starting prices). How we calculate.
- [8] Around 765,000 U.S. families a year are likely open to a personalized pet keepsake. Our estimate: 1.5M pet cremations x 51% interest in personalized memorials. How we calculate.
- [9] 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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