Have you lost a pet? How did you choose to memorialize him/her?
 

I was wondering if anyone has had this dreaded experience and if so what you did to memorialize your lost pet? I've been kindof pre-planning for my lil Chewy as he is 15 and showing signs of the inevitable. I know when the day comes I will be a basketcase, so I'm trying to prearrange everything so I don't have to make those decisions when my mind is mush.

Did you choose to cremate your pet? If so, did you distribute the ashes somewhere special or do you have an urn in your home?

I'm leaning towards an urn and have found a few I like that are somewhat cheerful (despite it being a sad situation). I want to remember Chewy with happiness.

If you did get an urn...I would be interested to know what kind of urn you chose and if your happy with your decision.

I certainly appreciate you sharing about your beloved fallen pet. PS - any advice on the subject would be so appreciated...I haven't been throught this before and could certainly use all advice! Thank you and bless you.

I just posted in the RIP thread. It was one year ago today I had to put our 10 yr old Lhasa Poo to sleep. I still cry over her I have no idea how long it takes to get over the loss of a beloved pet. Our Yorkie is our baby now and we love her but still miss Millie. Our pets who died at home are buried here Millie was in pain so I put her down at the vet so she was cremated. I did not want the ashes back it's just not something that comforts me. You can never really prepare for the death of someone or a pet you love. However if you do choose to get ashes back please pick them up. When I worked at the animal hospital we had so many people ask for ashes back, pay the extra money for it then never pick them up. We had a shelf just for the unclaimed ashes there were so many. I guess people are grief stricken and say they want ashes back but then change their mind later or maybe it's just to painful for them to go pick up a box that used to be their pet. Some just don't want to return to the place where they last held their pet. They in hind site would rather remember the pet the way it lived not in a box.

I have a friend who is blind and the only pet she ever got ashes back from was her seeing eye dog. She said the dog had done to much for her over the years to just let him go.

We bought an 8 week old puppy last summer and he passed 3 weeks later. We buried him at the park, it is a wooded area off a trail. We go to this park very often and visit, our 3 year old daughter also knows he is there and we always say hello to him when we're in the area! If I owned my own home I would of done it in the back yard but we rent an apartment so that was not an option for us.

It is not legal here to bury your pets in the yard. One neighbor actually turn in another neighbor for buring her Chi in her flower bed in the back yard. They were faced with a fine if they did not move the dog.

I think thats bull. If you want to bury your dog in your own yard you should be allowed. I recently lost my pittie. We decided to bury him in the back yard and got him a nice memorial.

I totally agree as long as you don't bury the animal upstream of someone's well water etc. Most people are on city water now so ground water contamination should not be a big deal (I could be wrong).

i dread that day, but i do have a plan. i will cremate lexi and keep her in
an urn, but when i die i want her buried with me.. if i go before her, i told
my mom they have to dig me up and still put her with me..

Guess i didnt think of that since ive lived in the suburbs all my life and have always had city water. But its still sad they were told to move their dog. id keep my dog there and pay the fine. im just stubborn that way :D

I don't remember the fine for sure but $500.00 comes to mind. It was a few years ago now.

I've had 3 pets that have passed away...and to memoralize them i bought a music box which plays "Puff the magic dragon". In the box theres a lock of my pet's hair and their collar. I chose Puff the magic dragon cause with all my pets if they werent feeling well...id hold them in my arms and sing this song to them...except id replace dragon with "doggie". The music box is absolutely gorgeous..its mahogany and it sits on a shelf in my walk-in closet. So i think of them everyday when i go to get dressed. I know its nothing that can ever replace the pain...but it brings a little peace.

My Sophie passed 2 months ago:( We had her cremated and got her ashes back. Right now the ashes are in a box that the vet gave us and I put a picture of her on it. I also put a lock of her hair in the box and her stuffed animal near it. Later on I will get a special urn for her but for right now she's there on my shelf in the living room. Oh how i miss her

That is so beautiful!

When my cat, Einstein, died a few years ago - I did get her ashes back, and they are in a cylinder shaped wood box. I don't know why, but it was comforting to the get the ashes for me.

I'm so sorry you are going through this and understand how difficult it is. I recently lost my first dog, Bailey. He was 14.5 yrs old.

I chose to have him cremated and found a beautiful urn, that sits on my fireplace with his ashes and my favorite picture of him on it. It is very comforting to have him with us. There are still days that we sense and feel him here, visiting. My other dogs always know.

This is a post I put up, at the end of my post is a link to a video I made for him, if you care to watch it to the end, you will see the urn that I have him in.

http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/our...et-bailey.html

You can also find it and other beautiful ones at Angelashes.com

I just recently (6/1) lost my 14 month old yorkie, Max. He was in surgery and had a heart attack and the vet couldn't bring him back. My vet who was absolutely wonderful, asked me if I want his footprints and what to do with the body. I chose to have Max cremated. I also bought a plastic tub and put his blanket, collar, leash, clothes, and favorite toys in it. Max's ashes are still in the box, but when I find an urn that I like, I will get the ashes transferred.

I also wrote a Letter to Max in the RIP section and have my favorite picture of him as my desktop on my computer. Each night before I go to bed, I can look at his face and let him know that I am thinking of him.

Nothing says I love you like a thirty-two pounds of Yorkie statue in the garden.

I "forgot" to tell my mother I was getting this for the middle of her herb garden where he's buried. :D (He always buried his bones there.)
Buttons, RIP 01/29/09.

Just thought I should give you a pic of what the statue looked like.

Wow! That statue is awesome!

Buttons must have been loved very much. Rest in peace sweet boy

That is so cool wish we could have done something like that for our dog.

To Lexi Rae & Gina: That is an excellent idea. I'll have to tell my husband that I want the same. Thanks for sharing.

I am so sorry for your loss. You've got the right idea though, "It's not a goodbye as you will see her again!" Amen!

The statue is beautiful...where on earth did you find it? Did you have it specially made? That's a very cool idea. I wish I had a backyard and I would do the same. Thanks for sharing.

We recently said goodbye to our sweet Kirby. At the time, we had been hanging onto the ashes of our two previous furkids, not being sure what to do with them.

We decided to take all three sets of ashes and release them. Here is my post describing our day

It was the right decision for us.

omg i just readwhat you did with the ashes and im crying my eyes out. soo sad to hear a loss of a loved one.
my heart goes out to all of you...

I'm in SC, and in the next town over there's this concrete place, Smith's. They have all sorts of dogs there. They also have grave markers. The one in front of Buttons is the smallest one they offer. I did some research and here's a link. Its technically a shih tzu but whatever. X-CART. Powerful PHP shopping cart software - Dogs I'm pretty sure they ship.

And I lied. He's 42 lbs.

When our little Cash died unexpectidly, a week after his 1st birthday:cry:, we had the vet put him in a box, and then we brought him home and buried him in the backyard. Then I found a small headstone that had the most perfect words on it and put it on his spot. It was the most terrible day of our life, but I go back there and talk to him all the time.

We just had to put down Our Pom Porsche on June 1st. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. She almost made it to her 17th birthday which is my Birthday June 15th. We miss her so. She would snap back at those little yorkies of mine but never hurt them. Our little Yorkies have their own bedroom so I decided to have her cremated and just got her ashes back in a little Black urn and put a pearl necklace on it. She is on a shelf in ZsaZsa, Zoe's & Mia's room to look over them. I had always buried mine before but I felt like she got to come home and I will do this from now on when the time comes. When it is my time. I will have all their little urns with me. As for the other furbabies I have had in the past I hang their collars on My Christmas tree every Christmas. They may be gone but never forgotton.

In 2005 I have to have my companion of 17 years put down due to a complete liver failure. The hardest thing I ever did. My daughter came with me to drive as I could not, she wasn't much better. The vet took care of the body as I lived in an apartment and did not have much money. He then sent to us a plaque with a beautiful poem on it and her name. That showed up about a month after she passed and really opened up the wounds. How long does it take to get over it, eternity. I still get weepy at times especially when I see her pictures. My fur baby General Lee helps a lot. He is not a replacement, but a reminder of the wonderful time she and I had together. (He also sometimes looks like her). The loss of a fur baby is the same as loosing a family member as they are our families. Loosing my mother helped me see that. The pain never goes away, it just fades some. Hang in there and God Bless.

Bless your heart (on what you did for Bailey). I think it's a wonderful tribute (the video and the urn). Thank you so much for sharing. The urn is beautiful...I'm going to check it out on angelsashes.com...thanks for the website. Having gone through it and it being such a painful thing...do you think you'll continue to have dogs/pets? Sometimes I wonder if I could stand going through it again...and I haven't even been through it yet! I certainly appreciate you sharing Bailey's tribute on my thread. ~Shelby

Thank you so much {{hugs}}}}}

It was very difficult :(, but I already had 4 other furbabies ( added 3 in the last 2.5 years), and I could not imagine life without them. It did make me think about being able to bear that kind of loss again 4 more times, but the love and companionship of these little furbabies means far more to me than the pain of losing them. So I try to enjoy each and every day and each and every little silly antic about them one day at a time.
Time does make it easier, and knowing I had almost 15 years with him really leaves me feeling blessed. He really isn't gone, he has his own little suite in my heart forever :love: