Would you get your pets ashes back?

[monkeys23]

Hopefully that decision is at least a decade or more out.

However just this weekend I finally buried the ashes of my friend's Keesh puppy that died of a blood disorder when she was six months old. She gave me the ashes to bury on parent's property because Koko loved going up there to visit and she and her hubby were about to move to VA. I buried her next to the red/orange iris's in the garden and planted some marigold seeds in the dirt above the grave. Hopefully they grow.

My childhood BC and my previous cat are both over by the strawberry planters on the other side of the yard at my parent's. They weren't cremated though.

 

[JennSLK]

I got Emma back. I dont think I could have not done it. Maybe someday I will burry her, but Im no were near ready yet. God I miss her so much every day.

 

[Dreeza]

we have buried our dogs --a space out back, and then planted flowers on that spot. I actually feel good seeing the flowers bloom each year, and feel like Trav and Libby are with us again.

I think I'd rather go this route. But I guess I'd have to have a home/garden to do this. Hopefully its nothing i have to think about anytime soon though.

 

[AgilityPup]

It always creeped me out, before I was looking at losing Bella at a young age, in a home where I don't know if I'll still be here in 10 years. So I made the decision that I'd rather have Bella's ashes here with me than have her buried and then me move and have no way of "taking her" with me, besides the obvious way, in heart and spirit. So I got her ashes back, and I picked them up two weeks after putting her to sleep, and honestly, I felt a HUGE comfort in picking her ashes up. I rode home with the package on my lap, and I felt like Bella was back with me in every possible way she could be at the time.

That said, they're home now, and I still haven't been able to find a suitable urn, and so they're still in the same package, on a shelf, where every little while I go "see" them, speak to Bella, and make sure that they're all still packaged and nothing has gotten into them or anything. And I really am happy to know that when I leave this farm, Bella's ashes will come with me, because Bella didn't care WHERE she was, so long as she was with me, and so that's how I'll keep it.

But like you, this wasn't something I'd really ever thought about it... then I was preparing to say good bye too soon and was forced to think about it.

 

[~Jessie~]

Burying our pets will never be an option as we're not planning on staying in this house forever. Not to mention, the amount of rain we get in FL scares me when it comes to putting any bodies into the ground.

 

[Giny]

When I had my cat put to sleep I didn't keep her ashes but regret it to this day. I was in a moment of deep sadness, she was close to 17 years old, living with chronic renal failure and it took all of the strength that I had to make the decision to put her down, stay with her till the end, but couldn't even speak after she departed because I was crying so much, no words would come out.

I'd love to have the ashes from my dogs, not to keep, but to fertilize special tree in their name. It might sound morbid, but I wish I could plan for that in advance so that when the time comes I don't have to worry about letting the vet know my decision.

 

[Dizzy]

I would and I would scatter them in her favourite places. The river, the beach, the woods.

 

[PalmettoPaws]

Last year I got Sasha, a miniature Poodle, for my mother for her birthday. A month ago she had to be put to sleep unexpectedly as a result of a tragic accident. In the past all of our pets have been buried but we just moved to the city and that isn't an option any longer.

Initially my mother did not want Sasha's ashes back because she felt they would be a constant reminder and depress her every time she looked at them. Then my aunt spoke with the vet clinic and went ahead and had a private cremation done with the intention of doing whatever my mother wanted with the ashes.

She decided that she wanted to keep them. We don't have an urn or box yet but will be getting one soon and when the time comes I will bury or spread their (my mother and Sasha's) ashes together. I intend to do the same thing with my own pets.

 

[Bailey08]

I am not religious, nor am I particularly spiritual, but Bailey means the absolute world to me -- so much so that the thought of addressing this issue makes me incredibly sad -- and I'm sure that I'll want to do something special. I like the idea of scattering his ashes with mine.

 

[Laurelin]

I wouldn't keep the ashes forever. I don't want a bunch of ashes sitting around my house, I want to either bury them somewhere nice or scatter them somewhere special. We're not staying at this house but we have four dogs buried here (and numerous rodents too). I don't really mind leaving them here, they're all together. Nik, Trey, Harry and Hiro. I just want to do SOMETHING with them. I don't feel right not having a little ceremony.

We planted redbud trees where they're all buried.

 

[HayleyMarie]

I have not actually ever had a dog cremated. Maddie we took the the vet to PTS, but we brough her back home. At the time it was in the winter so we could not bury her so we put her in a box and set her in the freezer until the ground thawed.

Badger who he PTS last summer. The vet came to my place to send him home. I dont think I will ever take a dog to the vet to be PTS I would rather pay the extra and have the vet come to me. Its saves so much stress on me and the animal.

Anyways after we said out good byes we wrapped him up in a blanket and my brother and dad dug a nice deep hole in the garden do place him in. Its nice to look out in the garden and know hes there.

I have no idea what I am going to do with Teagan once her time comes. I think its going to depend where we live. And what I can handle. All though knowing Tyler and I we will probably bury her somewhere special.

 

[Locke]

We had Tippy privately cremated and brought her ashes home. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep them, but I really enjoy having her urn around. It brings me more comfort than sadness.

 

[puppydog]

Yes. I have Bens. I want to have my ashes cast in a cement block along with all my dogs that have passed and then have it dropped on a reef.

 

[Shakou]

My dog's ashes are all over the U.S. right now. We lost them in a horrible accident along a stretch of I40 somewhere in New Mexico last April. The winds there are known to be the strongest in the south west and were ridiculously violent and strong and it busted the locks on our car top carrier that contained his urn, and he, in addition to a number of other things, smashed into the guard rail and blew off with the wind. We found out later that it was that very area and those winds that had spawned a series of tornadoes that had tore all the way to the other side of the country the week before.

Before this accident had happened, I had his ashes for over 10 years and it was my intentions to keep them until I died and have them buried with me. But I find it appropriate that a dog that loved to run like the wind in life is now running like the wind in death We've decided to make it a tradition now, that whenever one of our animals pass, to get them cremated and return to that spot to let them go.

 

[Fran101]

I would get them back from the vet, but I wouldn't keep them in my home. if anything, I would spread them outside somewhere special

One of my friends had her dog's tag melted (mixed in with some of the ash) into a charm for her bracelet, and I think thats a really pretty and cute idea

 

[StillandSilent]

I wouldn't keep the ashes. When Puss passed, I didn't keep the body either, I let the shelter dispose of it. I did keep his harness and tag.
When Neon passed, it was important to his 'other mommy', who helped me out finacially when fostering that he be cremated, or I wouldn't have wanted his body back either. She gave me half of the ashes, and I'm a little embarassed to admit that they're still riding around in the trunk of my car, in their box.
Once the pet is dead to me, it's gone, and I dont' care anything for either the body or anything that might result from it.

 

[MPP]

When the animal that I loved has gone on, what's left is only the husk. I have them cremated but don't keep the ashes. I keep their collars and tags as reminders. It's sort of comforting to run across them now and then. I touch them and smile and remember. Or, sometimes, cry a little.

 

[SarahHound]

Not everybody has land.... what else would somebody do with them? Most vets here just offer either private or group cremation, you cannot exactly just throw the body in the garbage.

Well to me, going to the trouble and expense of having a pet cremated, seems silly to not want the ashes back

 

[crazy_paws]

I would want the ashes back. I have the ashes of my childhood dog in the guest room. I would like be cremated myself, and have all of us scattered together.