Pets become part of the family and it is natural to want to mark their passing. Children may be especially keen to bury their pet or perform a short ceremony. This can encourage a healthy understanding of life and death, and allow them important time to grieve.
Pet Caskets from Farewell My Pet
Burial or Cremation
You may wish to give some thought in advance to what you would like to do with your pet’s body on his death. If a pet dies at a veterinary surgery it can often be disposed of free of charge. Many pets are brought home to receive backyard burials, but pets can also be cremated or buried in pet graveyards. See below for sample information:
Memorials
It is traditional to mark a burial place or special spot with a memorial to your loved one, and now you can buy memorials to your pet too. Many firms offer specifically-made grave markers, chests and urns, whilst you could also plant a tree or erect a seat in your garden or special place in memory of your pet.
Heart Stone from Pets Remembered
Keeping Your Pet
If you prefer to have your pet preserved in some form so it can return home to you, this can be done provided the pet looks healthy at the time of death. Specialist Taxidermists will stuff and preserve your pet for a fee, for example in the UK see Philip Leggett‘s helpful website. There are even services in America offering to freeze-dry your pet, provided in each case you are willing to wait the several months these processes will require.
Keepsakes
There is now a growing market for keepsakes that incorporate an image of your pet, or perhaps even his ashes. Consider Pet Keepsake jewellery, such as this beautiful horse-remembrance necklace on Etsy;
Available items range from window decals, jewellery and more from sites such as Memorial Gallery Pets, to a professionally painted canvas.
Portrait by Fabulous Masterpieces.
A Short Service for a Pet
However you have chosen to remember your pet, some kind of informal ‘service’ will help you feel you have said a proper Goodbye. A simple box and hole in the garden will do, though as you have seen a pet funeral can include nearly all the trimmings of the human version. In the same way, a helpful poem or short eulogy may help you or your children put into words what they are feeling.
An unknown author wrote of a place where pets await their owners before entering heaven:a soothing message for young and old alike on the loss of their pet:
Rainbow Bridge
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.When an animal dies who has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigour; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; his eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together….
More Poems suitable for the loss of a pet can be found at these sites:
From a lovely Blog