An urn for your pet, in Oakdale
Around 940 dogs and cats are lost in Oakdale each year, by our estimate. If yours is one of them, this page explains urn sizes, prices and engraving, with no rush to decide.
- Wood, ceramic, marble and brass compared
- Tips for moving ashes safely
- Ideas for apartments and houses
Oakdale, Minnesota
Buying an urn locally or online in Oakdale
Washington County winters heave soil hard, so any outdoor marker in Oakdale needs a firm footing. Granite or bronze on four inches of packed gravel holds its position far better than resin or cast concrete dropped straight into sod. Keep it out of snowblower range, and look it over each April once the ground softens, resetting it if the frost has nudged it off level.
Oakdale mixes townhouse developments with 1970s-and-later single-family subdivisions, so memorial space varies a lot from one street to the next. In a townhome, a mantel urn, a shadow box holding a tag and a favorite toy, or a slim pendant fits easily. With a backyard, you might set an engraved stone beneath a maple or plant a flowering shrub where your companion used to lie in the grass.
Rural roads and long carrier routes make timing less predictable around Oakdale. If you're planning a memorial on a particular date, order the urn as soon as you've decided and ask for the production time and the shipping time separately. Engraved and custom pieces add a step, so leave a margin of a couple of weeks. The ashes can stay in their temporary container until the urn arrives.
Oakdale's population is around 30,588, the 34th-largest of the 67 Minnesota communities we cover. The nearest larger centre is Saint Paul, about 7 miles (11 km) away, which is where some providers serving Oakdale are based.
Our pages for Maplewood (4 miles), White Bear Lake (6 miles) and Woodbury (6 miles, a larger centre) describe the same choices from those towns' point of view, and the providers overlap, so a quote from one often covers Oakdale as well.
Our estimate
11,500
How many dog- or cat-owning households Oakdale has (estimate)
How we calculated this
30,588 ÷ 2.5 = 12,235 households; × 53% (dog) + 39% (cat) = 11,500. A household with several pets counts once.
Our estimate
940
Oakdale families who lose a dog or cat each year (estimate)
How we calculated this
11,500 dog/cat-owning homes ÷ average lifespan (dog: 12.69 yrs + cat: 11.18 yrs) ≈ 940 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.
Where these figures come from: Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science and American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry.
Keeping ashes at home: the local attitude
Roughly 68.5%[5] of people in Minnesota are cremated, and the share has been rising for years. As cremation grows, so does the habit of keeping ashes at home. In national research on human cremation, 37%[6] of Americans said they would keep cremated remains at home in an urn. Many pet owners feel the same pull to keep a companion close.
NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024) is where the Minnesota figure comes from. It counts people; we use it because attitudes to cremating a pet in Oakdale tend to follow attitudes to cremation generally.
Heat, cold and damp: materials for Oakdale
Indoor heating matters as much as the cold outside. Forced-air vents and radiators dry the air, and a wooden urn placed right next to one can shrink, crack or open at the joints. Keep wooden urns a few feet from heat sources and out of the path of hot air. Metal, stone and ceramic don't mind dry air, which is one reason they're popular in cold places.
Oakdale winters bring average lows at or below freezing in January, February, March, November and December. If you'd like to bury your pet's ashes in the garden, frozen ground may mean waiting until spring. That's fine: the ashes are safe indoors in the temporary container or the urn, and many families find a spring burial, with the first flowers coming up, a gentler moment than a cold graveside in January.
Budgeting for an urn and keepsakes in Oakdale
If part of the ashes will go into the ground, the cost picture changes. Biodegradable pet urns run $15–$80[7] in one national guide, and outdoor rock or sandstone urns made to sit in a garden cost $300–$395[8] at one crematory network. A simple engraved garden stone over buried ashes is cheaper still: by our estimate, entry prices sit at ~$39[9] across three US sellers. For many Oakdale families, that pairing costs less than one marble urn.
We keep the detailed Minnesota price table on one page so it stays current: see Minnesota prices.
Free tool
Memorial budget planner
Add up cremation, urn, keepsakes and a farewell so the total holds no surprises.
Rules worth knowing before you scatter or bury
Most families never need to think about rules at all: the urn stays at home, and that's allowed everywhere. If you'd like to scatter or bury some of the ashes in or around Oakdale, a quick check with the landowner or the park authority avoids awkward moments. Here's a summary for Minnesota.
Minnesota keeps an official directory of local governments; use it to reach the county or city office that covers Oakdale.
We keep Minnesota's burial and scattering rules in one place: the Minnesota rules summary. Before a home burial in Oakdale, also ask the city whether local ordinances add anything.
How to get from ashes to urn
- Decide whether each pet gets its own urn or whether you'd like a matching set that grows over the years.
- Pick a design that will still be made later, ideally one a nearby craftsperson could reproduce, if future urns need to match.
- Size each urn for one pet; buying a companion urn for two is best left until you actually have both sets of ashes.
- Label the base of every urn, naming who it holds and when, whatever is engraved on the front, so there's no confusion later.
- Leave shelf space next to the first urn, so that adding another later doesn't mean moving everything around.
- File each crematory certificate with its urn, in an envelope taped underneath or kept together in a drawer.
Remembering your pet, in Oakdale and beyond
Given the city's name, an oak planted over a biodegradable urn is a fitting choice for some families, though a swamp white oak or bur oak needs room to spread. Others prefer something small to hold: a fur clipping, a nose print, or a few grains of ash sealed in a glass charm. Keepsakes like prints and fur must be requested before cremation, so raise them early.
For a plain comparison of the choices, open services, run the numbers with the free planning tools, or look at how readers voted in our polls, look through our guides and the blog. You can also browse every city in the United States. Nearby, we also cover Duluth, Rochester, Minneapolis and Brooklyn Park, and every city in Minnesota.
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 would you move the ashes from the temporary container into the urn?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Will your pet's ashes stay together or be shared?
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.
Free tools to help you plan
Memorial budget planner
Add up cremation, urn, keepsakes and a farewell so the total holds no surprises.
Urn size calculator
Find the urn volume you need from your pet's weight, plus keepsake and sharing options.
Ashes sharing planner
Split ashes fairly between family members, keepsake urns and jewelry.
Questions people ask
Is Oakdale big enough to have several pet aftercare providers?
Probably, on the numbers. By our estimate about 11,500 Oakdale households keep a dog or cat and around 940 lose one each year, which is enough steady demand to support more than one provider. We derive that from population (about 30,588), household size and national ownership and lifespan figures.
Where are the providers that serve Oakdale actually based?
Some are local, and some run from Saint Paul, about 7 miles away. That is normal for a town this size. What matters is the collection time they quote for Oakdale and whether the drive is priced into the total, so ask both up front.
Is cremation common in Minnesota?
For people, yes: about 68.5%[5] of Minnesota 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 Oakdale follow the human pattern closely, so cremation is the default most families here start from.
When is the hardest time of year to arrange a burial in Oakdale?
January, February, March, November and December: average lows are below freezing then, and frozen ground makes a home grave slow or impossible until it thaws. The other pressure point is July, when highs around 81°F mean a body needs cooling and collecting quickly.
Is it safe to open the bag of pet ashes?
Yes. Cremated remains are dry, sterile bone fragments with no smell, and handling them carries no health risk. They're coarser and heavier than most people expect, a little like pale sand. If you do open the bag, work indoors over a tray, away from open windows and fans, and keep pets out of the room. Wash your hands afterwards, as you would after gardening.
Do I have to buy an urn right away?
No. After a private cremation, the ashes come back in a sealed temporary container, usually a bag inside a box or tin, and they're safe in it indefinitely. Many families in Oakdale wait a few weeks, or even months, before choosing an urn. Waiting often leads to a better choice, because the first days after a loss aren't the easiest time for design decisions.
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 Minnesota's cremation rate at 68.5% for 2024. NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage), 2024.
- [6] In NFDA's 2025 consumer research, 37% said they would keep cremated remains at home in an urn, and 33.5% would scatter them. Cremation.Green summary of NFDA 2025 Cremation & Burial Report, 2025.
- [7] Memorials.com's pet urn cost guide puts biodegradable pet urns at $15–$80. Memorials.com – Pet Urn Cost Guide, 2025.
- [8] Outdoor rock and sandstone pet urns cost $300–$395 at Final Gift; a scattering tube costs $18. Final Gift Pet Memorial Center – Memorial Products, 2026.
- [9] Engraved pet garden stones start at about $39 at the median of three US sellers. Our estimate: median of starting prices [$38 Adirondack, $38.95 Memorials.com, $89.99 Comfort Co.]. How we calculate.
- [10] Marble pet urns cost about 3 times ceramic ones, consistently across a price guide and a crematory price list. Our estimate: Memorials.com midpoints marble $190 / ceramic $60 = 3.2×; Final Gift marble $260 / ceramic figurine $90 = 2.9×. How we calculate.
Find an urn that fits, delivered to Oakdale
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.