Business profile: Peaceful Companion provides end-of-life care for pets
Dr. Rickman with his dog, Caramello.
Updated with information clarifying how business was started.
By Kristine Haroldson
Dr. Barry Rickman of Edmonds started Peaceful Companion in 2011. His goal is to provide in-home pet hospice and euthanasia services to pets around in and around Edmonds.
After finishing veterinary school, Rickman worked for a pathology lab in Mukilteo testing animal biopsies, but he found that he missed working with animals directly.
He came up with the idea for Peaceful Companion after friends and colleagues began asking if he could come to their home to assist with the euthanasia of their pet.
This has become his full-time job, which means he is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“When someone calls, I will get out to their house that day,” he said.
Customers have a choice of burial options: a communal cremation or a private cremation where the ashes are returned to the family in an urn. Or they can choose to bury the body themselves. The price of the service varies depending on which burial option is chosen.
Dr. Rickman,
I really like this concept. We had to take our cat into the vet for euthanasia in 2011 and it would have been lots better if we could have had your service then, ourselves. I brought his little sweet furry body home so the rest of our pet-kids could see he had died, and the whole thing was just so hard on us. We opted ot have Wizard cremated by himself and his ashes are in an urn and we keep it inside where we can see it.
I sure hope you can find another doctor to help you in this practice. And keep the prices low, too. Perhaps get other vets involved in the same kind of practice specialty in other areas. We live in Renton.
Thanks for offering this service.