Our Story
Peaceful Pets began the way most good things do in a small town: around a kitchen table, with a dog asleep under it.
A family, and its animals
We're a family business from Bungendore, New South Wales — a village on the Southern Tablelands where everybody knows everybody, and most of them bring their dogs. There have always been animals in our family: dogs and cats, of course, but also horses, chooks, and a long line of very opinionated rescue rabbits. We know what it is to love them. And we know what it is to lose them.
When our old dog died, we went looking for a resting place that felt like him — and couldn't find one. Everything was plastic, or solemn in a way he never was. So Kim, the creative heart of this family, went out to the shed and made one herself: shaped by hand, finished with care, unmistakably his.
Friends asked. Then friends of friends. Then the local vet. Somewhere along the way, Peaceful Pets stopped being a favour and became our family's work: handmade memorial urns for the animals who make houses homes.
The Workshop
You'll find us in Bungendore NSW, about half an hour from Canberra. Families are welcome to visit the workshop by appointment — to talk through ideas, to see timbers and glazes, or simply to sit with a cuppa for a while.
Arrange a visit →“Every animal I've loved taught me something about making: patience from the horses, curiosity from the cats, and from the dogs — that the simplest things, done with your whole heart, are the ones that last.”— Kim, founder of Peaceful Pets
Meet Kim
Kim has been making things all her life — clay, timber, paint, whatever would sit still long enough. She is the artist behind most Peaceful Pets urns, and she leads every commission personally: listening to your pet's story, choosing the craft that fits, and shaping the piece with her own hands in the workshop.
What she can't make herself, she entrusts to a small circle of fellow artisans she has gathered around the business — a potter, a woodworker, a glass artist, a weaver and a metalsmith, each chosen for the care they bring to commemorative work.
What we promise
Losing an animal is losing family — we've stood where you're standing. These are the things we hold ourselves to, every time.
- Made by hand, never by production line
- Every animal welcome — dogs, cats, horses, birds and more
- Honest natural materials, sourced responsibly
- Photos shared as your piece takes shape
- No rush, ever — grief keeps its own time
A true family business
Kim makes; the rest of us do everything else — answering messages, packing parcels, keeping the kettle warm and the dogs off the workbench. When you write to Peaceful Pets, it's one of us who answers. Always.
We'd be honoured to make something for the friend you're missing
Tell us a little about them — a few lines is plenty — and we'll take it gently from there.
Begin a Commission