Pet freeze-drying and taxidermy in Mount Juliet
Mount Juliet has an estimated 16,500 dog- or cat-owning households, by our count. Very few local vets handle a preservation request often, so this page walks you through the freezing, shipping and waiting yourself.
- What to tell your vet or emergency clinic
- Freezer and power-cut backup plans
- Practitioners chosen by portfolio, not postcode
Mount Juliet, Tennessee
Arranging preservation from Mount Juliet: the practical side
Once the ashes are back, a Mount Juliet family might gather on a mild evening on the porch, pass around old phone photos and let the kids tell their favorite stories. Others prefer to return each year to a lakeside picnic spot they shared with the pet, or sponsor a shelter adoption. Choose the timing and style that feel right for your family.
Neighbors in newer subdivisions may not know each other well, which can make grief feel isolating. Telephone support staffed through university vet schools, message boards for grieving owners and local church groups can all help. Some people also find it useful to put their feelings on paper, whether as a journal or a short note addressed to the animal, during the first difficult weeks.
Plenty of households around Mount Juliet already own a chest freezer for meat or garden produce. That's useful now. Clear a shelf or a corner, double-bag your pet with the air pressed out and keep them separate from food in their own bin or box. Set the freezer to its coldest and leave the lid shut, even when you'd like to look.
About 45,172 people live in Mount Juliet, which makes it the 20th-largest of the 35 Tennessee communities we cover. Some of the providers who serve Mount Juliet are based about 16 miles away in Nashville, the nearest larger centre, so collection times reflect that drive.
Families in Mount Juliet often end up using a provider from Hendersonville (9 miles), Lebanon (9 miles) and La Vergne (13 miles). That is normal: crematories serve a radius, not a single town, and the drive is priced into collection.
Our estimate
16,500
How many dog- or cat-owning households Mount Juliet has (estimate)
How we calculated this
45,172 ÷ 2.5 = 18,069 households; × 53% (dog) + 39% (cat) = 16,500. Homes are counted once however many pets they keep.
Our estimate
1,400
Estimated dog and cat losses in Mount Juliet each year
How we calculated this
16,500 dog/cat-owning homes ÷ average lifespan (dog: 12.69 yrs + cat: 11.18 yrs) ≈ 1,400 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.
The published sources behind those figures are American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry and Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science.
Cremation, burial and preservation in Tennessee
Burial is still the usual choice for people in Tennessee, where about 48.9%[5] are cremated. Pet aftercare often follows the same instinct, with many pets buried at home. Preservation asks something different: a body kept above ground, on display, for years. Talk it through with the people you live with, since it's their home too, before you commit to a full-body piece.
NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024) is where the Tennessee figure comes from. It counts people; we use it because attitudes to cremating a pet in Mount Juliet tend to follow attitudes to cremation generally.
Keeping your pet frozen through Mount Juliet's weather
Shipping a frozen pet from Mount Juliet changes with the season. In July, heat on loading docks is the worry, so use plenty of dry ice and a thick cooler. In January, February and December, snow delays are more likely than thawing. Whatever the month, send early in the week and ask the practitioner to confirm when your pet has arrived and gone into their freezer.
Weather in Mount Juliet swings from hot summers to winters with lows below freezing in January, February and December, and both seasons bring storms that can cut the power. Have a plan before you need it: know where to buy dry ice, keep the freezer lid shut through an outage and ask a neighbor on another line or a vet clinic to take your pet if the power stays off.
What pet preservation costs in Mount Juliet
It helps to set preservation beside ordinary aftercare. Private dog cremation averages about $260[6] nationally, while one price guide puts freeze-drying a cat or little dog at $1,000–$2,500[7]. By our estimate, that makes freeze-drying roughly ten times the price of a private cremation[8]. Seen that way, a single preserved paw with the rest cremated can be a sensible middle path for families in Mount Juliet.
Prices for Mount Juliet track the wider Tennessee market, so use the Tennessee 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.
Rules worth knowing in Tennessee
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 Tennessee allows for home burial and scattering too.
To find your county or city office in Tennessee, start with the official Tennessee local government directory.
Start with the Tennessee rules, which cover burial, scattering and oversight for the whole state, and treat Mount Juliet's local ordinances as a possible extra layer.
A checklist for the first hours
- Stop the clock. Heat is what rules preservation out, so move your pet to a cool, hard floor right away.
- Call ahead to your vet or an emergency clinic if you don't have freezer space, and ask them to hold your pet frozen rather than refrigerated.
- Set aside the collar, tags and a favorite blanket. Don't cut or trim the coat yet; the practitioner can tell you where a keepsake lock can safely come from.
- Bag and freeze your pet within a few hours, double-wrapped, in a natural resting pose.
- Decide on the method: preserving the whole pet by freeze-drying, conventional taxidermy, or keeping just one part and cremating the remainder.
- Agree everything in writing, including what happens if damage is found when your pet thaws.
Caring for the piece, and for the memories
In a commuter town like Mount Juliet, both parents may work in Nashville and children may be in school all day, so a pet's death can feel sudden and rushed. Pausing for ten minutes in the kitchen or on the porch, before the pet leaves the house, gives each person a chance to touch them and say something. An evening set aside later for stories also helps.
or see what other families chose in the poll results, use the free tools before you ring anyone, read our guides and latest articles, See what each option includes on our services page. Close to Mount Juliet we also cover Clarksville, Nashville, Knoxville and Murfreesboro; the full list for Tennessee and for the United States is a click away.
Reader polls
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Questions people ask
Does the Mount Juliet climate change what I should do first?
Only the timing. In July, with highs near 89°F, cool the body and book collection the same day. In January, February 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.
How many pet owners live in Mount Juliet?
By our estimate, about 16,500 households in Mount Juliet have at least one dog or cat, and around 1,400 are lost each year. We calculate this from the city's population of about 45,172, the average household size and national ownership and lifespan figures, so treat it as a floor rather than an exact count.
Is cremation common in Tennessee?
For people, yes: about 48.9%[5] of Tennessee 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 Mount Juliet follow the human pattern closely, so cremation is the default most families here start from.
Where are the providers that serve Mount Juliet actually based?
Some are local, and some run from Nashville, about 16 miles away. That is normal for a town this size. What matters is the collection time they quote for Mount Juliet and whether the drive is priced into the total, so ask both up front.
Is it legal to preserve my pet bird, turtle or snake?
For captive-bred pets such as budgies, cockatiels, parrots, corn snakes and most pet tortoises, usually yes. Native wild species are different: many wild birds, turtles and reptiles are protected, and possessing or preserving them can require a permit even if you kept them legally. Tell the practitioner exactly what species your pet is and where they came from before you ship.
How many pets die in Mount Juliet each year, and how many are preserved?
Our estimate for Mount Juliet is roughly 1,400 dog and cat deaths a year, across about 16,500 homes with a dog or cat. Just a small fraction are preserved; one market report puts taxidermy at about 7%[10] of owners' choices, and many families end up with a partial keepsake instead. You won't be the first to ask, but your vet may not have been asked before.
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 Tennessee's cremation rate at 48.9% for 2024. NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage), 2024.
- [6] CareCredit's 2025 cost study put the US national average for private dog cremation at $260 (range $206-$473). CareCredit (Synchrony) - How Much Does It Cost To Euthanize a Dog? (2025 ASQ360 procedural cost study), 2025.
- [7] Memorials.com puts freeze-drying at $1,000–$2,500 for a cat or small dog and $2,000–$5,000+ for a medium to large dog. Memorials.com – Pet Taxidermy Guide, 2025.
- [8] Freeze-drying a cat or small dog costs about 10 times a private cremation. Our estimate: midpoint freeze-dry $1,750 ($1,000–$2,500) / $175 (private cremation 3–24 lb, NC provider). How we calculate.
- [9] Freeze-drying a 10 lb cat at one published price list would cost about USD 2,290–2,590. Our estimate: Low: 2,095 + 49 x (10-6) lb; High: 2,095 + 49 x 10 lb. How we calculate.
- [10] About 7% of pet owners choose taxidermy, per Astute Analytica. Astute Analytica via GlobeNewswire — Global Pet Preservation Services Market to Hit USD 112.7 Million by 2032 (Apr 2, 2024), 2024.
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