When your pet dies

[run_silent]

What do you with the body? I know this is a sad subject.

When my pets die I always dig a grave and bury them. I find it cathartic. The physical labor helps with my grief. Mentally it seems to me like giving the pet the proper respect. I also place a few of their favorites whatevers with them.

Iv'e always owned land so I bury them on my own property.

I can't really explain how the physical labor of digging a three or four feet grave relieves the grief other than it is the last thing I can do for a good friend.

Asking again, what do you do?

 

[oggbashan]

I have buried too many.

But then we moved house. Some of our pets are now under a concreted yard.

 

[run_silent]

I have buried too many.

But then we moved house. Some of our pets are now under a concreted yard.

I have moved too. That is why I bury them deep enough so they won't be disturbed by most normal changes of future owners.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

I bury them. My old alpha cat is buried in the front yard. I put some large rocks over the spot and planted a dogwood tree next to it. He would have liked the tree.

 

[dolf]

i get my stepdad to dig a grave. watching physical labour relieves the grief.

the las grave he dug was for his royal gayness. 4 foot deep, five foot long, three foot wide. before that he has had to bury my mother's mastiff and wolfhound. i think by now he's seeing the appeal of cats & chihuahuas.

 

[run_silent]

I bury them. My old alpha cat is buried in the front yard. I put some large rocks over the spot and planted a dogwood tree next to it. He would have liked the tree.

When I live in a place that had rocks I would do the same thing. Partly because of a memorial and party to keep wild beasties from disturbing the grave.

The dogwood was a very nice touch.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

When I live in a place that had rocks I would do the same thing. Partly because of a memorial and party to keep wild beasties from disturbing the grave.

The dogwood was a very nice touch.

I collected some of those rocks on a cross-country trip several years ago. They are from diverse places and don't look like the local field-stones. The dogwood was a volunteer from Mom's (former) yard.


I like to scrounge and to maximize what I have, improvising along the way.

 

[run_silent]

i get my stepdad to dig a grave. watching physical labour relieves the grief.

the las grave he dug was for his royal gayness. 4 foot deep, five foot long, three foot wide. before that he has had to bury my mother's mastiff and wolfhound. i think by now he's seeing the appeal of cats & chihuahuas.

oo

Good grief. That's a big hole. Was royal gayness a pony?

 

[chillywilly2]

This is one I have to think about as my Lab is now 13 and getting towards the end...dammitt

 

[MissMaidenMinx]

I'm starting to feel like my backyard is a pet cemetery and I don't like the sensation. There's only 3 animals (2 cats and a dog) back there but it's not fun. When my current cat goes he'll be put in his favourite spot out the front and have a lemon tree planted on top of him. My dog is too young to think about it right now.

It's heart breaking when pets pass away.

 

[run_silent]

This is one I have to think about as my Lab is now 13 and getting towards the end...dammitt

That is always a hard decision. Am I prolonging their life for myself or should I let them go? With my last dog I think I let it go on to long because I didn't want to let go but he was obviously in pain. My first thought was as long as he was eating and drinking he was OK. Then his cries of pain when getting up and down convinced me it was time.

He was 13 also. 13 years old is good for a lab. Good luck and I hope you find peace for both of you. PM me if you want to.

 

[run_silent]

I'm starting to feel like my backyard is a pet cemetery and I don't like the sensation. There's only 3 animals (2 cats and a dog) back there but it's not fun. When my current cat goes he'll be put in his favourite spot out the front and have a lemon tree planted on top of him. My dog is too young to think about it right now.

It's heart breaking when pets pass away.

Hugs. Yes it is.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

I was just thinking about how many critters are buried in the back yard at Mom's old house. I suppose it is nearly a dozen, and it might be a couple more than that.

 

[Wings]

I don't bury any animals in the yard because I live in coyote and mountain lion central. I get all of our departed animals cremated.

 

[oggbashan]

I have moved too. That is why I bury them deep enough so they won't be disturbed by most normal changes of future owners.

One of my brother's cats is unlikely to be disturbed.

When he died, my brother was living in a large old house that had a through drive to a neighbouring farm. That drive was only used for very large vehicles that didn't have room to turn around in the farm entrance, but that meant that it had to be of a standard to take 44 tonne vehicles.

The farmer wanted to upgrade the whole route when a local contractor was working on a new major road bypassing the village. The drive was excavated to a depth of three metres when the cat died.

My brother buried the cat in a grave dug at the bottom of the excavation. The next day the contractors installed the reinforcing bars before pouring concrete. The drive, with the cat safely underneath, was a massive block of reinforced concrete.

Ten years later, when my brothers' children had left home, he had downsized to another old but smaller house still in the village. The current owner of his old house telephoned. He wanted to update the wiring of the former dairy that my brother had converted into a small house for his eldest daughter.

"How difficult would it be to put a cable under the drive?"

My brother laughed.

The new owner strung the supply cable in the air, high enough to be above any large vehicle that might pass through.

Next year the farm was sold and became a housing estate. The drive was blocked where it left my brother's former property but the part in the farmyard remains as the main access to the housing estate.

The cat still rests in peace.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

That is always a hard decision. Am I prolonging their life for myself or should I let them go? With my last dog I think I let it go on to long because I didn't want to let go but he was obviously in pain. My first thought was as long as he was eating and drinking he was OK. Then his cries of pain when getting up and down convinced me it was time.

He was 13 also. 13 years old is good for a lab. Good luck and I hope you find peace for both of you. PM me if you want to.

My dog died 10 weeks ago. She had a stroke. But she was in no pain, and did her best to keep on truckin till the very end. I buried her in her favorite spot in the garden with her blankie, and covered it with stumblestones.

 

[evesdream]

I leave anything larger than a hamster with the vet to be disposed of by them (animal crematorium). It might be different if I had a large yard, but I doubt it.

It would have been horrible carrying my cat's heavy, lifeless corpse home with me to bury. It never even crossed my mind as an option.

 

[dolf]

I leave anything larger than a hamster with the vet to be disposed of by them (animal crematorium). It might be different if I had a large yard, but I doubt it.

It would have been horrible carrying my cat's heavy, lifeless corpse home with me to bury. It never even crossed my mind as an option.

his royal gayness seemed to weigh nothing when i carried him out. like 'life' had a weight, and now it had been lifted from him. he was soft and warm.

while my stepdad dug, it gave my kids a chance to stroke & cuddle & say goodbye. it's know to help kids with the grieving process, so i had a practical reason for doing it too.

but, yeah, it's not as ghastly as you think.

 

[Laurel]

I leave anything larger than a hamster with the vet to be disposed of by them (animal crematorium). It might be different if I had a large yard, but I doubt it.

It would have been horrible carrying my cat's heavy, lifeless corpse home with me to bury. It never even crossed my mind as an option.

When my cat died, I was most shocked at how my feelings for her changed once the life left her body. I was holding her as they gave her the byebye drugs. One minute she was my baby, the next she was a carcass. That quick. It's like she disappeared. I put her down on the table, sat on the floor, and cried hard. The vet wrapped her body in a towel and offered it to me to hold. I didn't want to hold it. She was gone.

She was cremated, now sits in an urn in a bookshelf.

 

[run_silent]

My dog died 10 weeks ago. She had a stroke. But she was in no pain, and did her best to keep on truckin till the very end. I buried her in her favorite spot in the garden with her blankie, and covered it with stumblestones.

I am sure you are still hurting. I too buried my dog with her favorites. It took me about 18 months before I got another dog. I had to grieve and prepare myself that this would be a totally new dog and nothing like my old one.

 

[run_silent]

I leave anything larger than a hamster with the vet to be disposed of by them (animal crematorium). It might be different if I had a large yard, but I doubt it.

It would have been horrible carrying my cat's heavy, lifeless corpse home with me to bury. It never even crossed my mind as an option.

I understand the way you feel. We are all different and there is nothing wrong with the option you picked.

 

[LoveNLaughter]

That is always a hard decision. Am I prolonging their life for myself or should I let them go? With my last dog I think I let it go on to long because I didn't want to let go but he was obviously in pain. My first thought was as long as he was eating and drinking he was OK. Then his cries of pain when getting up and down convinced me it was time.

I am beginning to struggle with this myself. Damn, it's hard.

 

[run_silent]

When my cat died, I was most shocked at how my feelings for her changed once the life left her body. I was holding her as they gave her the byebye drugs. One minute she was my baby, the next she was a carcass. That quick. It's like she disappeared. I put her down on the table, sat on the floor, and cried hard. The vet wrapped her body in a towel and offered it to me to hold. I didn't want to hold it. She was gone.

She was cremated, now sits in an urn in a bookshelf.

When I had my pet put to sleep I had to sit in the damn waiting room. I used that time to settle my bill. I told them after this happens I want to walk out the door with his body with no paper work. They were actually kind and understood.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

As long as the animal has a decent quality of life, I think keeping it is the way to go. When I think the animal is in more discomfort than not, then it's time to look at euthanasia hard.


That's their quality of life, not yours. I consider that I made a deal with them when I let them come inside to live here.


I think I have learned more about the practice of the term "committed relationship" from cats than humans.

 

[Phelia]

s all around

Putting our dog down was easily one of the hardest days of my life. Our vet was awkward and awful and perfect - he said all the wrong things, but they made us feel better anyway. I can look back and love him and hate him all at once. He was funny, though. We were never sentimental about the body, and I always found the idea of holding on to the body to be much harder. He was a wonderful dog, but it would be strange for me to have his ashes on a shelf somewhere, or buried in the backyard, or turned into a decorative throw pillow on my chesterfield (I use macabre humor as a coping mechanism). Partially because I believe when you're dead, you're dead. I don't care what happens to me after I kick it, but I understand people who do. At the same time, I am deeply unsettled by corpses. It was wrenching to see his body, and I tried to pet him one last time. Barely a minute had gone by and he was already starting to get cold. We drove home and cried until we couldn't any more.

Anyway, since we weren't taking the body, we had two options. Private cremation or group cremation. The clinic makes more money from the expensive former option, so the way the vet framed it was like "I'm so sorry for your loss - I know just how difficult this is and it's okay to grieve. Okay so you have two options: a private cremation just for your dog so you can take the ashes, or a group cremation where we just chuck him onto a big ol' pile of dead dogs and torch it." Haha. We still went with the latter. He was an awesome little dog