Pet Passages

Pet Loss…It’s personal

Purdy Funeral Service has been servicing families in the community for over 140 years. Stephen Purdy is a fourth generation funeral director who proudly carries on the traditions of the families business that started back in 1873.

It was back in the spring of 2012 the Stephen Purdy and his wife Caroline lost their two Labrador retrievers. “Jake” and “Jesse”. Jake was a Yellow Lab who was Stephen and Caroline’s first child, as they first married. Shortly after taking Jake into their family, Caroline rescued a beautiful Black Labrador retriever named , Jesse. The two dogs were their family, their children, they were on every Christmas card, and were known as grand puppies to Stephen’s parents. The loss of their two faithful companions was devastating, as they both passed within 30 days of each other. It was at this point that they realized the level of death care that was available to them was not up to par with funeral industry standards. As Stephen and Caroline researched the available options, the more they were appalled with the treatment pet families received upon the death of a pet.

Our loss became our or dream…

Stephen and Caroline are avid animal lovers who lost a part of their family. Together they knew that through their education, training, and experience along their families heritage, they could do a great deal to improve the quality of pet loss in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire, Maine and beyond. Believing pet family members deserve not only the very best in life but also death, they set out to gather as much information and learn as much as they could about pet loss services. To their astonishment, they learned that the way pet loss was handled in their area was the same across the nation. With this knowledge, they knew something had to change. Knowing in their hearts that adding pet loss services to their funeral business, was the right thing to do, they started construction of Pet Passages by Purdy Funeral Service in the fall of 2012.