Pet freeze-drying and taxidermy in Fountain
Roughly 900 dogs and cats die in Fountain each year, by our estimate, and most go to cremation by default. If you'd like to preserve yours, tell your vet today and get them into a freezer within hours.
- What to tell your vet or emergency clinic
- Freezer and power-cut backup plans
- Practitioners chosen by portfolio, not postcode
Fountain, Colorado
Arranging preservation from Fountain: the practical side
For military families in Fountain, a pet often provides steadiness through deployments, training rotations and moves. When a pet dies while a parent is away, grief gets complicated. Consider holding the goodbye by video so the absent parent can be part of it, and let children help plan something small, such as choosing a photo or writing a letter to read aloud.
Some Fountain families spend a quiet hour by Fountain Creek, a lilac planted in April or a photo that travels from house to house with every move. Cremation, already the norm in Colorado, suits families who may relocate, since ashes can go wherever you go. There is no deadline for choosing a final resting place, and some families never do.
In a town like Fountain, the local vet may never have had a preservation request. Explain simply that you'd like your pet frozen, not refrigerated, and kept out of the cremation collection. If the clinic has no freezer space, most rural homes have a chest freezer somewhere, and a relative's will do for a few days while you choose a practitioner.
About 29,450 people live in Fountain, which makes it the 28th-largest of the 36 Colorado communities we cover. The nearest larger centre is Colorado Springs, about 12 miles (20 km) away, which is where some providers serving Fountain are based.
Families in Fountain often end up using a provider from Colorado Springs (13 miles, a larger centre), Pueblo (29 miles, a larger centre) and Castle Rock (48 miles, a larger centre). That is normal: crematories serve a radius, not a single town, and the drive is priced into collection.
Our estimate
11,000
How many dog- or cat-owning households Fountain has (estimate)
How we calculated this
29,450 ÷ 2.5 = 11,780 households; × 53% (dog) + 39% (cat) = 11,000. Multi-pet homes count once.
Our estimate
900
Estimated dog and cat losses in Fountain each year
How we calculated this
11,000 dog/cat-owning homes ÷ average lifespan (dog: 12.69 yrs + cat: 11.18 yrs) ≈ 900 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.
The numbers above come from Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science and American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry, if you'd like to read the original sources.
Cremation, burial and preservation in Colorado
Cremation is the norm in Colorado: roughly 77.4%[5] of people who die there are cremated. Many families who choose preservation still end up using a crematory as well, for the parts of the pet they aren't keeping. A preserved paw with the rest of your pet cremated privately is a common pairing, and it fits comfortably with the way most people here already think about aftercare.
The Colorado percentage above is from NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024) and refers to human funerals. Treat it as context for Fountain, not as a count of pets.
Keeping your pet frozen through Fountain's weather
Winter storms in Fountain can bring ice, fallen lines and days without power. If your pet is waiting in a freezer, keep the lid closed, pile blankets on top and find dry ice or a generator before the second day. A full chest freezer kept shut holds its cold far longer than an upright model, and a garage freezer in January gets some help from the weather.
Cold weather in Fountain is actually easier for shipping a frozen pet. With average lows around 19°F in January, a well-packed cooler stays frozen longer in transit. The risk shifts to delays: snow can hold up carriers, so send early in the week, keep the tracking number close and ask the practitioner to confirm the moment the box arrives.
Published prices and waits for Fountain owners
Large dogs are where prices climb fastest. On one US studio's published list, pets over 20 lb are priced at $2,781 + $69/lb[6]; by our estimate, a 50 lb dog would come to ~$4,851[7] on that list before a base or shipping. Ask several practitioners for a quote by weight, and ask whether a head-and-shoulders piece or a paw would be possible instead.
Prices for Fountain track the wider Colorado market, so use the Colorado price table as your baseline and the services page to see what is included.
Free tool
Freeze-dry & taxidermy cost estimator
Estimate cost and waiting time for freeze-drying or taxidermy by size and pose.
When the rules in Colorado come into play
Before you commit to preservation, check two things with the practitioner: whether your species needs any permit where they are, and whether they're allowed to receive it. Rules for domestic cats and dogs are light; rules for native birds and reptiles can be strict and vary by place. If the rest of your pet is going to be buried or cremated, check what Colorado allows for home burial and scattering too.
The official Colorado local government directory lists every county and city office, which is the quickest way to find who to ask in Fountain.
For Colorado's rules on burying a pet at home or scattering ashes, see the Colorado guide. Local rules in Fountain can be stricter than the state's, especially in homeowners' associations and rentals.
A checklist for the first hours
- Check how warm the room is first. Turn on the air conditioning or carry your pet to the coolest tiled or concrete floor in the house.
- Use what you have tonight. A cleared kitchen freezer, or a cooler of bagged ice under a towel, will hold a small pet until morning.
- Leave the coat dry. Paper towel around the mouth and rear is all you need; soaked fur turns into frozen clumps that make the practitioner's job harder.
- Write down when you found your pet and when they went into the cold, even if you have to estimate.
- Phone your vet when they open if your freezer is too small, and say plainly that it's for a preservation specialist.
- Contact practitioners once your pet is frozen solid, with their species, weight and a photo of how they look now.
Once the finished piece is home in Fountain
Installation family support services, chaplains and counselors in the Colorado Springs area are used to helping people through all kinds of loss, including the death of a pet. Online groups for grieving pet owners are also available at any hour, which suits shift work and deployments. If sadness lingers, reach out to one of them, or to someone who shared your pet's daily life.
use the free tools before you ring anyone, For a plain comparison of the choices, open services, read our guides and latest articles, or look at how readers voted in our polls. You can also browse every city in the United States. Nearby, we also cover Aurora, Lakewood, Thornton and Colorado Springs, and every city in Colorado.
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.
How do you feel about waiting months for a preserved pet to come home?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
If you were preserving your pet, which route would you lean toward?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
If you had to decide today, which aftercare would you choose for your pet?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Questions people ask
Is cremation common in Colorado?
For people, yes: about 77.4%[5] of Colorado 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 Fountain follow the human pattern closely, so cremation is the default most families here start from.
Does the Fountain climate change what I should do first?
Only the timing. In July, with highs near 87°F, cool the body and book collection the same day. In January, February, March, November and December, when lows sit below freezing, a home burial may have to wait for a thaw, so cremation with ashes returned keeps your options open.
Roughly how many pets die in Fountain each year?
Our estimate is around 900. It comes from Fountain's population (about 29,450), the average household size, the share of homes with a dog or cat (about 11,000 households here) and the average lifespan. It is arithmetic, not a count, so read it as a rough floor.
Will I have to travel to Colorado Springs to arrange things?
Not usually. Providers based in Colorado Springs (roughly 12 miles from Fountain) 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.
What if the power goes out while my pet is in the freezer?
Keep the freezer shut and cover it with blankets for insulation. US food-safety guidance says a full freezer holds its temperature for about two days and a half-full one about a day, if the door stays closed. If the outage will run longer, buy dry ice, handle it with gloves and place it on top, or move your pet to a freezer that has power.
Is there a pet taxidermist in Fountain?
Possibly, but pet specialists are rare everywhere, so don't assume the closest taxidermist is the right one. Many mount game animals and see few pets. Most families choose a practitioner by the quality of their finished cats, dogs or birds, then ship their pet frozen overnight or drive it there. Tell us your pet's species and weight, and we'll email back practitioners who take pets from Fountain.
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 Colorado's cremation rate at 77.4% for 2024. NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage), 2024.
- [6] An Ohio pet preservation studio prices freeze-drying for pets over 20 lb at $2,781 plus $69 per pound, and 6–19 lb pets at $2,095 plus $49 per pound. Animal Family Pet Preservation – Pricing, 2026.
- [7] On a per-pound-above-threshold reading of its price list, one Ohio studio would charge about $4,851 to freeze-dry a 50 lb dog. Our estimate: $2,781 + $69 × (50 − 20) lb. How we calculate.
- [8] The pet preservation (freeze-dry/taxidermy) market adds only about USD 2.7 million a year, far slower than pet funeral services. Our estimate: (112.7M - 88.6M) / 9 years. How we calculate.
Find a preservation specialist for your pet
Tell us what you need and where you are. We'll reply by email with clear options and prices so you can decide in your own time.