Today we’d like to introduce you to AJ Bailey.
Hi AJ, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
For me, the mission became especially personal after losing my own dog, Nikki, in 2007. I waited five weeks for her ashes to come home, and I remember how difficult that wait was during an already emotional time. That experience gave me a firsthand understanding of how important pet aftercare is, not only how a pet is cared for after passing, but how families are treated throughout the entire process. I knew we could provide families with something more personal, compassionate, and timely.
I brought my own background of more than 30 years in veterinary medicine into the business and have now spent 18 years dedicated to pet aftercare. Over the years, we’ve continued to grow, but we’ve been very intentional about holding onto what mattered most from the beginning: remaining a true family business and treating every pet entrusted to us as we would want our own pets treated.
Today, three generations of our family are involved in Roseburg Pet Crematorium. My granddaughter, Abigail Corona, serves as our Business Manager and helps oversee our day-to-day operations. My mom, Linda Bruinsma, has become known for the homemade treats she makes for the veterinary teams we work with, and my dad, Harold Bruinsma, came out of retirement to serve as one of our Aftercare Transportation Specialists.
I’m incredibly proud of where we’ve come from and what our family has built together. While the business has grown since 2008, our purpose hasn’t changed. We understand that pets aren’t “just pets”, they’re family. Our goal is to give families peace of mind during one of the hardest parts of loving an animal by making sure their pet is cared for with compassion, integrity, dignity, and respect every step of the way.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It definitely hasn’t always been a smooth road, but many of our biggest challenges have come from growth and our determination not to compromise the level of care we provide.
As Roseburg Pet Crematorium became known for our VIP level of service, compassion, understanding, and respect, more veterinary clinics began trusting us with their clients and more families in the community started coming directly to us. We were incredibly grateful for that trust, but with growth came a new challenge: how do you serve more families without losing the personal care and attention that earned their trust in the first place?
One of the standards that has always been especially important to me is our 24–48 hour turnaround time. After waiting five weeks for my own dog Nikki’s ashes to come home, I never wanted another family to experience that kind of wait if we could prevent it. Getting a beloved pet back home quickly isn’t simply a business goal for us; it’s an integral part of our mission.
As the business grew, maintaining that standard became increasingly difficult. There were years when I was working 12–14 hours a day, seven days a week, doing whatever it took to make sure every pet received the care they deserved and families weren’t left waiting. There were definitely times when I was running on empty.
Thankfully, this business has always been surrounded by people who believe in what we do. My best friend, Tracy, and her daughter, Aspen, would step in when we desperately needed a vacation or when I was simply dog-tired. They would come in during the evenings and help make sure the pets in our care continued to receive the same attention and respect we promised their families.
Eventually, it became clear that working harder wasn’t going to be the long-term solution, we needed to grow. While driving around town, I came across a piece of commercial property and immediately saw its potential as the future home of our pet funeral home. After several years of pushing ourselves to the limit, we made the decision that it was time to expand, hire additional help, and build the infrastructure we needed for the future.
That period taught me an important lesson about growth. Success isn’t simply about serving more people; it’s about finding a way to grow without sacrificing the values that made people trust you in the first place. For us, compassion, dignity, respect, and getting pets home to their families as quickly as possible are standards we simply aren’t willing to compromise.
We’ve been impressed with The Last Act of Caring, LLC DBA Roseburg Pet Crematorium, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
At Roseburg Pet Crematorium, we specialize in compassionate pet aftercare, but what we really provide is peace of mind. Families are trusting us with a beloved member of their family during an incredibly vulnerable time, and we never take that responsibility lightly.
What sets us apart is the level of personal care behind everything we do. We are a locally owned, three-generation family business with deep roots in veterinary medicine and a genuine understanding of the human-animal bond. Our veterinary background has shaped the standards we have followed since the beginning: every pet is treated with dignity, respect, and individualized care from the moment they are entrusted to us until they are returned home to their family.
We’re especially known for what we call our VIP level of service. To us, that means paying attention to the details, communicating with compassion, supporting our veterinary partners, and treating every family the way we would want to be treated. One of the most important parts of that commitment is our standard 24–48 hour turnaround time. We understand how difficult it is knowing your pet isn’t home with you, so returning them to their family as quickly and respectfully as possible has always been a priority.
Another thing that makes us different is that we’re truly a family business. This isn’t simply a company with our family name attached to it. Three generations of our family are actively involved, from daily operations and management to transportation and supporting the veterinary teams we work with. That family involvement helps us protect the culture and standards Roseburg Pet Crematorium was built upon as we continue to grow.
Brand-wise, I think I’m most proud of the trust associated with our name. We’ve grown largely because veterinary professionals and families have experienced how we care for families and their pets and have shared that experience with others. That reputation means more to me than any advertisement ever could.
I want readers to know that pet cremation is about much more than the cremation itself. It’s about honoring a life and recognizing how deeply that pet was loved. We understand that because we’re pet owners too, and we’ve experienced that loss ourselves.
At the end of the day, our promise is very simple: your pet will be treated as if they were one of our own. That’s the standard our family built this business on, and it’s the standard we intend to carry forward for generations to come.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
One of the most valuable things I’ve learned is that you should never stop being a student of your profession. No matter how many years you’ve been doing something, there is always someone you can learn from and something you can do better.
For us, being a part of the Pet Loss Professionals Alliance (PLPA) has been incredibly valuable. It provides an abundance of resources, continuing education, and opportunities to connect with other professionals who understand the unique responsibilities that come with pet loss and aftercare.
I’ve also always believed in getting out there and learning firsthand. Whenever we was traveling to another state or attending a veterinary conference, we would look up a local pet crematory and ask if we could tour their facility. Some welcomed us in and generously shared their knowledge, while others wouldn’t. I always remembered the businesses that opened their doors. There is something powerful about professionals being willing to learn from one another rather than seeing everyone as competition.
In fact, one of the lessons I’ve carried into our own business is the importance of transparency. When someone is willing to show you how they operate, answer questions, share what they’ve learned, and even talk about mistakes they’ve made along the way, there is a level of confidence and integrity in that. It taught me that I wanted our business to be one we could be proud to show people.
My advice for finding a mentor is not necessarily to look for someone with the biggest business or the most impressive résumé. Look for people whose values you admire. Find someone who does things the right way when no one is watching, who is willing to share what they’ve learned, and who genuinely wants to see others succeed. Then don’t be afraid to ask questions. Some people may say no, but the ones who say yes can change the direction of your life and your business.
Networking is also about giving, not just receiving. Build genuine relationships. Share what you’ve learned, support other professionals, and be willing to help the next person coming up behind you. Some of the most meaningful connections I’ve made didn’t begin as “networking” at all; they began as conversations between people who cared about the same things.
And in our profession especially, education and research can teach you the technical side of the business, but they cannot teach you everything. You have to have compassion and a true understanding of what families are experiencing. We’re caring for someone’s beloved family member on what may be one of the hardest days of their life. You can learn procedures, purchase equipment, and build a beautiful facility, but genuine compassion can’t be manufactured.
I believe the best mentors help you become better at what you do without asking you to become a copy of them. Learn from everyone you can, take the best lessons with you, and then build something that reflects your own values. For us, those values have always come back to compassion, integrity, transparency, and treating every pet and every family with the respect they deserve.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.roseburgpetcrematorium.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roseburg_pet_crematorium/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064505177406
