Submitted Photo Katie Granzow stands in front of her pet transportation vehicle.

A busy stay-at-home mom has taken it upon herself to start a pet transportation service for the betterment of her community.

Katie Granzow’s pursuit is the first of its kind in Minot. She has developed a transportation service to transport deceased pets for cremation or burial at the owners’ expense.

Granzow grew up around animals her whole life. She now lives on her property with four active children and an assortment of animals such as horses, cats, peacocks and rabbits. She said they have a special place in her heart and she knows the people of Minot have a special place in their heart for animals too. It can be emotionally devastating to cremate, bury or transport a cherished pet. Granzow knows this feeling all too well and wants to alleviate that burden from the owners’ shoulders.

Granzow’s personal experience and the hardship of not being able to find this service in Minot is what influenced her decision to pursue this kind of assistance.

“When I was looking for the service, I was amazed there wasn’t anything here. I ended up having to transport them myself. So it’s something I knew the community needed because I know I’m not the only one who has run into this issue,” Granzow said.

Recently, a neighbor’s horse passed away on her property. With it being illegal to bury and her neighbors having no way of transporting it, she offered her vehicle to help.

“That gave me the idea of turning this into a business to help people take care of their deceased animals while going through that hard time to take some of the burden off their shoulders,” Granzow said.

Veterinarians will take care of the deceased animal if it dies at their facilities. They usually don’t help with animals that die on personal property.

Granzow can transport to any place of the owner’s choosing. If the owner wants to get their horse cremated, Granzow can transport it to a cremation service of their choosing. Otherwise, she takes the deceased animals to the city landfill. Granzow is licensed to take them to five different landfills throughout North Dakota.

She is transporting roughly two animals a week now. Eventually she would like to expand and do cremation services also. She wishes to take away the devastation of having to do it yourself.

“I have everything set up to where I just show up and load up the animal. The owner does not need to help at all,” Granzow said.

Granzow calls her service “One Last Ride” and is optimistic for its future servicing the pet owners of Minot.