Our Story

2016
It started with wanting a different kind of life.
Back in 2016, Bob and I were tired of the humdrum of leaving the farm every day to go to work. We wanted to build something of our own, right here at home, that would allow us the freedom to work hard but still come and go when life called.
We decided there were two things people would always spend money on: pets and diets.
Well...we like to eat, so diets were out.
Pets it was. 😂
We knew we didn't want a traditional pet store. Sitting in a store all day waiting for someone to come through the door and maybe making a buck or two wasn't the freedom we were looking for.
Around that same time, a gentleman we bought oats from was closing his longtime pet cemetery. We purchased some of his cemetery equipment, and suddenly an idea that had started as “we need a business here at home” began taking shape.
2016–2017
From an idea to a plan
In October 2016, we began exploring the possibility of opening a pet cemetery and cremation business on our property.
We met with the township and government agencies, including DEP and Air Quality, explained what we wanted to do and received support to move forward.
And then...life happened.
At the time, our horse business was incredibly busy. During one stretch in 2016, we were running three trail rides a day with five to nine people on each ride for three months, followed by another six weeks of our corn maze. Then came the holidays, winter and all the other things life has a way of putting in front of you.
The pet cemetery and cremation business went onto the back burner.
In 2017, we closed the trail-riding and other customer-related horse activities and went back to simply enjoying our horses for ourselves. But the pet business idea stayed tucked away.
We just didn't know yet when we would come back to it.
2020
Then 2020 changed everything.
When COVID-19 arrived in March 2020, the farm suddenly became very quiet.
No customers. No side hustles. No extra money coming in. Bob had also been injured, and despite our circumstances, we didn't qualify for the assistance we hoped would help us through it.
We had to figure something out.
We applied for an SBA loan without even being completely sure what we would do if we received it.
Then, to our surprise...
We got it.
By July or August, that old 2016 idea resurfaced.
What about the pet cemetery and cremation business?
We pulled the idea off the back burner and started again.
2020
The cemetery wasn't meant to be.
As we dug deeper into opening the cemetery, we discovered there was much more involved than we had originally understood.
Land would need to be separated from our farm and deeded for cemetery use. Burial plots and roadways would need to be established. There were financial requirements for the long-term care of the property and questions about what could eventually happen to that land if the cemetery ever closed.
Bob's position on giving up control of part of our land was pretty clear.
“The state wasn't getting our land. Period.”
That helped settle that. 😂
More importantly, we started asking people what they actually wanted.
We conducted an extensive survey and learned that the overwhelming majority preferred cremation rather than burial.
So the pet cemetery was out.
Pet cremation was in.
“The state wasn't getting our land. Period.”
2021
Pet CreMations begins.
We started researching cremation equipment, talking with other people in the pet cremation business and learning everything we could.
We found our machine and ordered it in October 2020.
While we waited, we went to work. We built a website, created our Google presence, started advertising and prepared to open a business we had first imagined four years earlier.
On December 26, 2020, our cremation machine arrived.
On January 1, 2021, Pet CreMations had its first customer.
Were we completely prepared for everything that first day?
Absolutely not. 😂
The machine didn't exactly arrive with someone standing beside it to teach us every little thing. So we did what we've done many times in our lives:
We figured it out.
We're pretty good at winging it.
We're pretty good at winging it.
2021
A few more bumps in the road...
Those first months brought some unexpected regulatory hurdles.
Requirements had changed since our original conversations in 2016, and a handshake was no longer enough. We discovered additional permits and equipment requirements as we went.
We would get something handled, start again...and discover there was something else we needed.
It was frustrating at the time.
By August 2021, everything was finally in place and Pet CreMations was operating with all of the required approvals.
Looking back, though, those interruptions weren't entirely a bad thing.
They gave us time to learn our equipment, work out the bugs, develop our procedures and create systems that would eventually allow us to handle a growing number of pets while still giving each one individual care.
Within a year, our business had tripled.
And we never forgot why we wanted to do this differently in the first place.
Within a year, our business had tripled.

Why we do things differently

Why One Pet at a Time?

Before Pet CreMations ever opened, we had already heard and seen things that bothered us.

Two friends of ours worked for a pet cremation facility where families could pay for an individual cremation. They were instructed to place multiple pets together despite what those families had paid for.

Our friends refused.

They walked away rather than participate in something they believed was wrong.

Another time, we happened to see body bags being loaded into a van outside a veterinary office. Being naturally curious, we asked the driver what was happening.

He was collecting deceased pets to transport them approximately eight hours away to the cremation facility contracted by that veterinary office.

It made us wonder:

If someone pays for an individual cremation, how can that family be absolutely certain the ashes they receive belong only to their pet?

We knew how we wanted to answer that question in our own business.

ONE PET AT A TIME.

100% GUARANTEED.

When your pet is individually cremated at Pet CreMations, your pet is the only pet being cremated.

It's not an upgrade.

It's not an extra service.

It's simply how we do it.

Why We're Available 24/7/365

Pets don't look at a clock before they die.

Sometimes a loss is expected. Sometimes it happens suddenly in the middle of the night, on a weekend or on a holiday.

And sometimes you need someone now, not three days from now.

That's why we decided before we ever opened that Pet CreMations would be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year by appointment.

Our regular hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, but we are on call outside those hours.

We don't sit in the office all day waiting for someone to arrive. We may be helping another family, picking up a pet several hours away, visiting family or simply living life on our farm.

That's why appointments matter.

But an appointment doesn't necessarily mean next week.

Sometimes it means right now.

Why We Offer Pickup

Not everyone can bring their pet to us.

Someone may be elderly or disabled. They may not drive or have access to a vehicle. They may be too heartbroken to safely make the trip. A parent may have several sleeping children at home. Sometimes transporting a beloved pet after a loss is simply more than someone can handle.

So we come to you.

We offer pickup from homes and veterinary offices, day or night, and we travel much farther than our immediate community when a family needs us.

Because sometimes the kindest answer is simply:

“We'll come get them.”

The people behind the phone

Meet Tracie & Bob

Pet CreMations isn't a big corporation, and that's intentional.

We're Tracie & Bob Lytle, and Pet CreMations operates right here on our farm in Glen Richey, Pennsylvania.

The same people who answer the phone are the people who meet you, care for your pet and do the work behind the scenes.

We've spent much of our lives working with animals, from years of horses, trail rides and farm life to the dogs and cats that have shared our home.

Pet CreMations started because we wanted to create a business at home.

Somewhere along the way, it became much more than that.

Every pet who arrives here belonged to somebody.

They slept in someone's bed. Waited at someone's door. Rode in someone's vehicle. Shared someone's dinner when they weren't supposed to. Made somebody laugh. Drove somebody crazy. And left an empty place when they were gone.

We never want to forget that.

Meet the Four-Legged Crew 🐾

Dutch and Whiskey, the farm dogs, together in the woods

Dutch & Whiskey

Dutch and Whiskey were farm dogs long before Pet CreMations existed.

Apparently, when we opened the business, they decided they had jobs too.

When a vehicle comes up our driveway, they'll escort it toward the office. If the vehicle stops, they stop. When it starts moving again, off they go.

They're basically our furry traffic-control department.

That's also one more reason we ask customers to make an appointment. When we know you're coming, we can make sure our enthusiastic driveway supervisors aren't holding up traffic. 😂

But their more important job begins when people come inside.

Some customers arrive completely heartbroken, and Dutch and Whiskey seem to know they need a little extra attention.

Other people have had time to process their loss and are doing okay. Somehow the dogs seem to know that too. They'll settle down and leave them be.

And when children arrive?

Well...apparently that's a completely different job description.

Remembering Snowman 🤍

Before Willie, there was Snowman, our fluffy white cat who spent plenty of time in the office waiting for customers.

Snowman seemed to know when someone needed him.

Adults loved on him. Children carried him around, sometimes upside down, and Snowman took it all in stride.

Eventually, Snowman needed a different home because of a family allergy.

Then one of our customers came along who needed Snowman.

And Snowman needed them.

So off he went.

Sometimes the right animal seems to find the person who needs them.

We've seen that happen more than once.

Snowman, a long-haired white cat, sitting outdoors

Willie, a black cat, at his supervisor desk

Sometimes we think we're rescuing an animal.

And sometimes, somewhere along the way, we realize they came into our lives to take care of us, too.

The one who takes care of Tracie

Meet Willie 🐈‍⬛

Willie picked Tracie.

She wasn't looking for another cat.

But when a pet picks you, you make it work.

At first, Willie seemed destined to become another member of the Pet CreMations welcoming committee. He comforted customers, inspected the pets who came through the door and was always willing to provide his particular brand of assistance with paperwork.

But eventually it became clear that Willie's most important job wasn't taking care of the customers.

It was taking care of Tracie.

He knows when she's frustrated, when she's sad and when she needs to be grounded for a minute. He can be in the middle of playing and stop because somehow he knows she needs him.

He walks her to work and walks her home.

If he's out exploring and she calls, he'll come running from the woods.

When she works late, Willie will come into the office and wait for her, sometimes curling up nearby and sleeping until she's ready to head home.

And at night, after Tracie gets settled into bed, Willie settles into his own spot and lets her hold one of his paws or his tail while they sleep.

He could pull it away anytime he wanted.

But he doesn't.

It started with wanting a different kind of life.

From an idea to a plan

Then 2020 changed everything.

The cemetery wasn't meant to be.

Pet CreMations begins.

A few more bumps in the road...