Staff photo / Dan Pompili Dr. Courtney Cameron and Dr. Bobby Cameron pose outside of their Cameron Pet Crematory business at 3511 Main St. in Mineral Ridge. The former gas station, auto body shop, and Christmas tree business was owned for decades by Chuck Parilla. Now it will help the Camerons ensure that the pets Courtney serves through her traveling in-home euthanasia practice remain in their care until they return them to their owners.

MINERAL RIDGE — The practice of medicine is a noble calling. For two local doctors, it’s not so much about the type of treatment they provide as much as whom they’re helping and why.

Where is also important.

Physical therapist Dr. Bobby Cameron and his wife, veterinarian Dr. Courtney Cameron, are all about keeping it close to home — as close as possible, in fact.

They operate two businesses in Mineral Ridge, where Bobby is a native — Class of 2010 — and Courtney a homer by choice. She came from West Palm Beach, Florida, and met her future husband at Youngstown State University. Since then, they have been partners in life and business.

After college — bachelors in exercise science in 2014, doctorate in physical therapy in 2017 — Bobby started working for Action Physical Therapy in Cortland. Almost immediately, he began discussing plans to open an office in “The Ridge.”

“I’m from ‘The Ridge’ and when I came to the company, I said, ‘Hey, there’s nothing here,'” Bobby said. “Plus, we were looking for a place to kind of settle down at the time, and being from here we just said, ‘Yeah, let’s open something here, stay here, work here. We can help people in the community.'”

The local office opened in November 2021.

“The people I treat here, I’d say close to three-quarters of them I either know them already or they know my family,” he said. “It’s my buddy’s mom coming in. It’s my teacher. It’s my custodian, my bus driver. So it’s cool to use your degree to help people who helped raise you.”

Meanwhile, Courtney — bachelors in biology, YSU, 2014; DVM, Michigan State University, 2018 — was working as a veterinarian in a large practice and later as a relief veterinarian, providing staff support to offices across northeast Ohio and southwestern Pennsylvania.

But in 2023, she found her calling in the field, and began traveling to provide in-home euthanasia services for families saying goodbye to their furry companions. Comfort Crossing is the name of their business and they (Bobby manages most of the business aspects and often comes with her for support) will travel up to 55 miles and sometimes farther.

The business was an immediate success. They said they opened eight spots, via Facebook, and they were all claimed within 24 hours. Courtney’s colleagues at several offices where she had worked also began recommending her services to their patients.

While the business got off to a great start, though, one pressing question kept coming up.

“A lot of people were asking, you know, ‘Are they going to be with you the whole time?’ because they know who I am. I just met them, (but) I just went through this with them, and that would matter to them, and I just got asked so many times,” Courtney said.

The Camerons used a crematory business they trusted, but that began to feel like hollow consolation for Courtney’s patients.

“I don’t want to say no. I don’t want to say we’re handing them off to somebody you don’t

know. We know them, we love them, but you don’t know them and that’s a big difference,” she said.

So, the Cameron Pet Crematory was conceived. But they still needed a place to operate the business.

“The trust component, taking them to the finish line, that component was huge. But it also made

business sense,” Bobby said. “We said you know, let’s invest back into the community. Let’s buy a building here that maybe has seen better days and turn it around, give it a face-lift and make it into something that the community can be proud of.”

After many attempts and a near miss on a building along Tibbets Wick Road in Girard, the Camerons got a tip that Weathersfield businessman Chuck Parilla might be interested in selling his auto body shop, a building that had already been a proud part of the community for decades.

Before the Camerons approached him about it in February 2025, Parilla’s building at 3511 Main St. had been many things. It started out as a Sunoco gas station and Parilla opened a body shop there as well. In the early 1970s, it burned down and Parilla rebuilt as an auto body shop, Bobby said.

Parilla continued to own the building, but it became a doctor’s office for a time, a travel agency, and for the past several years, many locals knew it as a place to go buy Christmas trees. A sticker on the door still says “Trees are the Answer.”

The building was sold in October and has been operating as the Cameron Pet Crematory since December, although it is largely under renovation by Murphy Contracting.

“We have this great facility planned, and we just don’t have it finished yet,” Bobby said. “Everything that we’re doing, we’re able to run our operation smoothly, respectfully, everything’s

done professionally. It’s just all the other accommodations for our staff — they’re just kind of roughing it right now, but soon they’ll have a really nice place to work.”

Much like the Action Physical Therapy office, Cameron Pet Crematory has a family feel to it.

The staff consists of Bobby’s father, Randy, a longtime teacher and principal at Mineral Ridge; Sara Eisenhuth, who is a niece of Bobby’s stepmom, works full time as well, and her husband, Brock, and her sister, Sabrina Stokes, also help as needed.

In the back, they have a fully operational incinerator and will be making room for another. They also have a $30,000 laser engraving machine that makes sure every pet is sent back to their owner with love and dignity in a customized box or urn, if that was requested.

The Camerons say they plan to expand into the engraved memorial and monument side of the business, making headstones for homestead burial and other beloved keepsakes, along with the traditional things, like pawprints and nose prints in clay.

The front of the building will have a warm and comforting reception area, kitchenette, checkout and pickup counter, and other amenities.

Comfort Crossing also has recently expanded its staff, welcoming Dr. Christine Simco Monfort — Dr. Kris to her patients — to allow them to reach more families in need of their services. The Camerons said Monfort, and her husband, Dr. Dan, who accompanies her on appointments, ran a successful veterinary practice in Columbus for more than 25 years, and recently retired to Canfield.

Families in need can reach the Camerons — often at any hour of the day — by calling or texting 330-333-6139 or visiting the website where they can view both vets’ schedules and book online, at comfortcrossinghome.com. Pricing, based mainly on distance and the size of the animal, is displayed on the home page.