What are you going to do with your dog's remains?

What are you going to do with your dog's remains?

  • Burial- Backyard/property you or a family member owns

    Votes: 13 23.6%
  • Burial- Pet cemetary

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Cremation- Urn

    Votes: 22 40.0%
  • Cremation- jewelry or life gem

    Votes: 6 10.9%
  • Cremation- tattoo memorial with ashes

    Votes: 2 3.6%
  • Taxidermy

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Freeze dry preservation

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Unsure- no idea

    Votes: 5 9.1%
  • Other

    Votes: 7 12.7%

  • Total voters
    55

Southpaw

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#41
This is a hard question for me.

I have Molly's ashes in an urn - that was a no-brainer. (My mom wanted her buried up at our cabin, but ultimately due to the timing of it all she caved in to my wishes).

This is the hard part: I don't want to bury any of my pets. I won't do a mass cremation. I WANT to keep their ashes, but what the heck am I supposed to do with all of them as I have more pets pass away?? I can't have urns all over the place....

I told myself Molly was the only one I would keep. And then I thought, well I'll probably want to keep Jinx's too because he's my first cat and he's awesome. And reading this thread has made me think... obviously I'm gonna want Juno's, too....

So yeah. I don't know.
 

Saeleofu

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#42
I can't have urns all over the place....
Why not? A friend of mine has a shelf started as a memorial shelf. Each pet has their ashes and a small remembrance item (collar, toy, whatever) on a shelf.

Or, you could scatter the ashes somewhere.

The one thing I worry about with cremation jewelry is what to do when I have a lot of pets gone. One charm on a necklace is fine, even two or maybe three. But if there were more, I'd want to look for something a bit larger to put everyone's ashes together in.

I don't pre-plan what to do with human remains, I figure they know what they want, and when the time comes, their wishes will be followed, not mine. I personally would first like to be donated to science. If that's not possible, or if there are remains when they're finished, I'd like to be cremated and spread somewhere gorgeous.
 

PWCorgi

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#43
Solo cremation and urns.

I will be that 90 year old woman with urns everywhere. And I plan on making it awkward to all visitors by telling them life stories of all the animals. Then they won't come back. Mission accomplished.
 

Fran101

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#44
let the vet deal with it.

I don't really attach memories or the idea of a living thing to the remains.. so I certainly am not sentimental about remains (would not keep them around, wear them etc..)

I think Paco and a few others makes jewelry from old collars/tags.. that's something I'd like to do.
Or perhaps a nice piece of art.

but remains wise? Likely nothing.
 

*blackrose

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#45
All of our animals have been buried on my parent's property, behind the garden shed. That's what we'll continue to do.

If they ever move or that isn't an option, I'll probably do a group cremation where their ashes are spread on a pet cemetery. I keep their collars and such as momentos. And I'd one day love to have mini figurines of them all.
 

crazedACD

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#46
I've been cremating and keeping the ashes in a box/urn. I don't know what I'm going to do in the future, I don't think I want tons of urns around. I might look for something large and put them together, or I might spread them somewhere. I would like jewelry or a keepsake but I'm afraid of losing it.

When I was at the clinic in TX, if someone didn't want cremation, we dropped the bodies at the landfill :/. I remember someone called because they didn't know what to do with their dane that died, and we went and picked it up with a stretcher. Went to the landfill and just rolled him off onto the heap. It bothered me.

Although I'm not too sentimental, and I would be fine with mass cremation, the idea of my dog lying in a landfill is too disconcerting for me. I'd probably imagine the body in the landfill all the time.
 

milos_mommy

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#47
I think I'll vote for cremation - urn. I'd also consider spreading their ashes somewhere special (for Milo, some body of water, the ocean I guess). My childhood dog was cremated and his ashes are still in the tin we got returned to us on a shelf near his photo.

If I did own property that was special to me or I planned to be at for a long time, I would consider burying my dog(s) at the time there. But for now, although this has been my family's home for 20 years, we don't have enough of an attachment to it or a nice enough yard for me to want to do that.
 

Southpaw

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#48
Why not? A friend of mine has a shelf started as a memorial shelf. Each pet has their ashes and a small remembrance item (collar, toy, whatever) on a shelf.

Or, you could scatter the ashes somewhere.
I don't know I just don't like the idea of it... I want their ashes, but I don't want a billion urns. :eek: And much too attached to scatter them. When the time comes I'll just have to find an out of the way place to put them I guess, because I don't think I'm going to be able to handle not getting ashes back.

I have like, a shrine for Molly lol. Her urn, and then on one side of it is the portrait Allie drew, and on the other side is a shadow box with her collar, clay paw print, and sympathy card from the vet.
 

Flyinsbt

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#49
At my vet the bodies get sent to Animal Control and mass cremated with the euthanized shelter animals and roadkill, and I don't know where the ashes ultimately end up. Not a pet cemetary. That said, that's what my parents chose to do with their last dog. My last dog (childhood dog) is buried in the back garden.
I'm fairly sure that's what happens with mine, that's what we used to do at the vet I worked for, years ago. I'm just not concerned about it. I can't even tell you what happened with my mom's ashes, we really weren't sure what to do with them. My sister took them home while we thought about it, and I don't know if anything was ever decided on, if so, I was out of the loop.

If I were living somewhere with more space for it, I might bury the dog on my own property, I really just go for the least expensive but appropriate disposal.
 

BostonBanker

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#50
Those By-And-By urns are lovely!

My guys will get solo cremations, and be kept in urns until I die. I then want them all combined before they are spread. I'm not someone who intends to ever have a huge number of dogs at once, so it should stay a fairly reasonable size collection.

It bothers me a bit that I won't be able to treat Tristan the same way, but there are very few places equipped for horse cremation, and the cost is very prohibitive. I already have a tail-hair bracelet with his hair and Boston's combined. I'd like to get a horse hair pottery vase done as well, and will keep that with the dogs' remains. He will be buried on the farm where he lives.
 

meepitsmeagan

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#51
Yah, I think it's the vet owner of the clinic that owns the cemetery. I've never seen it myself, its just out of town, but I think its technically just a field they get spread over.
Erm, our landlords own a pet cemetery. We currently live right next to it. Josh always says we have really quiet neighbors. I always say that the ghost guinea pig is sitting on our living room window sill. It is kinda weird, but makes a good landmark when giving people directions.
 

joce

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#52
Pets before I turned fourteen (and random bunnies and snakes the lawnmower got. Even had friends bury their pets there) are in my dads own pet cemetery. My childhood cats and dogs. Used to be a big circle back in the woods but he too the trees down farther back a couple years ago. Used to be quite creepy. I'd go bury the randomn guinea pig back there (only pet i could have couple years and always picked the sick ones a the pet store)till my ginger died and then I started creamating and she and my cat Dott sit on a mantle around our fish tank(kinda built in with photos on it in front of the ashes).

I don't know what I am going to do when one of my horses go. They are expensive to cremate. I've heard you can just do the heart. If we are ever into OUR farm is be fine burying them, just don't want to feel I'm leaving them and don't know how my dad would feel about me bringing them to his pet cemetery!
 

Sparrow

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#53
I will probably do what I am going to do with my cats ashes. So far I haven't been able to bear splitting up her (my cat's) ashes, but I am going to mix some with soil and plant a bonsai seed, I am going to get a piece of jewelry, probably a ring, and put some in that... maybe put a small amount in a locket with her lock of fur from the white patch on her chest... and I will bury some at her favorite tree, and keep the rest in a small bottle/urn in her memory box. Right now her ashes are all in the memory box.
 
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#54
Private cremation, definitely. I'm not sure whether I want to keep the ashes in an urn, or scatter them somewhere...but I'm leaning towards the urn.
 
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#55
I don't know, when our first greyhound passed I felt so unbelievably empty. His body was there, but he wasn't. I couldn't wrap my head around that. It was a huge shock and I couldn't make any decision at all, so rather than regret not doing it, I had him cremated and his ashes returned in a nice cedar box.

I had no feeling, no sense, that who he was was in his body, and he's not in that box either. He's with me, in my heart and in my memory, but he's no longer physically here. I'm not sure what I'll do with his ashes.

I had our CKC Spaniel cremated because he was more my daughter's dog than anybody's, and that's what she wanted.

Frankly, I'm not sure how I'll feel when the others pass.
 

Shakou

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#56
Cremation, and then releasing into the wind on a certain spot along the I-40 highway in New Mexico. There's a story behind this, but it's sort of long and I doubt anyone on here would be interested in hearing it.
 

Locke

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#57
I have my dogs ashes in urns on top of a cabinet in our living room, and a little "shrine" on top of my bookcase with a picture, collar, leash and favourite toy in my room. I also put Mitchell's ID tag on my keys, and will put Matrix's collar light on my keys when he passes away.
 

Paige

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#58
Cremation I think. I have my childhood dogs ashes and plan on spreading them somewhere when I find the perfect place. I will more than likely do that with bandit as well
 

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