Has anyone else cremated their pets?

I never did before, but losing Whiskey sucked and the thought of burying her somewhere forever sucked even more, so we got her cremated.  We picked up her ashes today.  We were going nuts thinking of what to keep her in and thought about getting a drink shaker and just sealing it up so company didn't accidently try to use it in the future.

Well, to our surprise she came sealed in a box already.  Along with a bookmark about the Rainbow Bridge that has already scared the bejeebus out of me thanks to pgeorgian.  I don't know how I feel that she's sealed in this strange box.

It bothers me a little bit that I don't know exactly what is in there.  It could be the remains of my cat, or it could be some dust someone swept out of a corner.  For $179 bucks, it better be my cat's ashes, and since I'll never know I guess I'll just have to assume it is.

This is turning into one of those drinking afternoons, except I've got to be at work in three hours so anyone want to volunteer to have a beer on my behalf?

i cremated sydney, but i already told you that story.  although you may be a little fuzzy on the details.

as far as not believing it is what it's supposed to be, you could sift through.  you ought to find some teeth.

i'll have a beer for you in about...seven hours.  okay?

All of my childhood pets were cremated after they passed away. They came back in a little white box....if I remember correctly.

If you don't like her being sealed up in the box, you could always scatter the ashes if that would make you feel any better.

Our animals are still in their boxes, tucked away in a safe place.

We cremated our eldest cat, Wilma, when she passed a few months back. We decided to get a tasteful wooden container to keep her in that is shaped like a cat but does not look like a real cat, if you get my drift. Anything that looked too real would be odd, but having a carved image tells people and reminds us who and what it is rather than an ornate box that could pass off as anything from a music box to a cigar box.

For $179, I expect it is indeed your Whiskey. We decided to get Wilma cremated through a professional service and pay extra for the very same reasoning - because at the vet, I didn't really expect them to differentiate between the cat we loved and that I grew up with, and little Timmy's pet hamster. :| But with a professional pet crematorium, they take care with your pets.

Sorry for your loss. :[

Sorry for your loss.

We had our first Great Dane cremated after we had him put down (cancer).  We'd had a dozen dogs by the time we got him, and had never had it done before, but there was just something really special about this dog, and there was no question about not doing it.   

Our vet sent his remains out to a professional, and he came back to us in a very nice cedar box, along with a death certificate and a very nice poem.  I know what you mean about not being 100% sure it's your pet, or JUST your pet, but I guess you just have to have faith.   He now sits on the nightstand on my husbands side of the bed (that's the side of the bed he always slept on) with his last collar and name tag on top of it.

Also for the future in case you ever have to go through something similar (hopefully not), we had a special cat this year have to be put down because of a brain tumor.  Couldn't afford cremation this time, so I just asked for her body back so I could bury her because I couldn't stand the thought of her going to a mass cremation or who knows where. To my surprise, they brought her back out to me in a very nice little cardboard coffin, even had icepacks in it.  They didn't charge me anything for this. I thought it was a very special little touch.  Made the burial at home seem more appropriate somehow.  You may want to ask your vet if they have these. 

So sorry for the loss of your pet. We had our first Frenchie cremated when she died unexpectedly during a simple spay procedure. Like you I wasn't familiar with the pet cremation process, but the company was professional, and they gave us her ashes in a wooden box with an engraved marker.

I also thought about is this really my dog in this box or someone else's ashes? But then I thought about why we really bury and memorialize our loved ones. It's not to honor them-they've gone on to a place we cannot even imagine. It is for us so that we can remember them fondly and be comforted. My little girl's wooden box is on a shelf with a large picture of her and her old I.D. tags. 

Again, I'm sorry for your grief-take care and Namaste.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

I just had to put my oldest cat, Binx, down 2 weeks ago today.  I had her cremated and got her remains back on Monday. Also in a wooden box as mentioned above. The bottom slides open and I admit, I opened it, and inside was a velvet bag.  Inside that, a small plastic bag with her ashes.

Warning:  Do not look at the ashes if you are weirded out by this stuff.  But because of scattering my mom's ashes, I knew what they should sorta look like and I wanted to be certain they looked similar.  They did. I won't get too descriptive here.

All our stuff was very well marked so I too can only assume this is truly my cat.  The plastic bag and box were marked as was the certificate that came with it. I will just have faith that the crematorium did the right thing.  (A former vet back home explained what the crematorium she used did and how it was possible to keep pets separate during hte process so I can only hope this is the same here.  I didn't think to ask.)

I shall have two beers on your behalf...one in honor of each of our dearly departed pets.

The vet, the place we went to for the second opinion, was awesome about her passing and all.  They offered us a clay imprint of her paw, which we happily accepted, and since she was such a pretty cat we got a tuft of her fur, too.  We've got her old collar, along with the rest of her, tucked away in the liqour cabinet, where she liked to sleep towards the end.

I guess whenever we move out of this place we'll have to build a liqour cabinet in our new house to put her in.

That's sad about Whiskey, we do love our furbabies so!

I had my dearly beloved Fitzie kitty cremated and got the nice box and all from the vet, and yes, the Rainbow Bridge also.

But I ended up scattering his ashes under the big oak tree in front of the porch, so he can climb trees and chase birds in perpetuity.

I lost my Pomeranian 3 days before Christmas last year to congestive heart failure (we had to put her down as we didn't have the funds to save her... it was awful) and we had her cremated also. She's in a lovely little cherry oak box with a cute lock and key holding it shut. Outside we had it engraved with her name, birthday and day of death.

It took me quite a few months to get over her death (as in not cry every second I do something that reminds me of her). I have another dog and they ate together and it was so hard to feed him and not have her there... her bowl was just sitting there. It was so hard.

You have my condolences CD. Really sorry for your loss. From your other threads I can see your other kitty is mourning in her own way too. My other dog was never the same when my other dog passed. He's not as playful as he used to be.

And I still talk to the little box every now and then. "Hi Angie, see the snow outside?" (her name was Angel). She rests inside my mother's great grandfather clock, it has a huge pretty glass shelf inside with glass doors.

I've thought of scattering her ashes, but she wasn't much of an outdoor cat.  She liked hiding in cabinets, sleeping under the sofa, and perching herself high on ledges.  I figured maybe in a billion years when Vodka goes, we'd find somewhere to scatter them together.

There are urns and such that you could get if you'd rather not have her in a little box.

Yeah, but how the heck do you get the box open? :|

My dog died last November and we had him cremated. He came back to us in a little urn. We put his colar and bandanna (that has his name on) around the urn. We placed him in the cabnet in our kitchen. It has glass doors so we can see him every time we are in the kitchen (his favourite place). We also put a picture of him beside the urn.

The company the did the cremation sent a sympathy card that was beautifully written and was personalized with my dog's name so we put the card beside the urn as well.

Original Post by greaser_girl:

My dog died last November and we had him cremated. He came back to us in a little urn. We put his colar and bandanna (that has his name on) around the urn. We placed him in the cabnet in our kitchen. It has glass doors so we can see him every time we are in the kitchen (his favourite place). We also put a picture of him beside the urn.

The company the did the cremation sent a sympathy card that was beautifully written and was personalized with my dog's name so we put the card beside the urn as well.

We also put a picture with our dog's urn. :)

I wish that I had cremated my beloved pets!  They are buried in various places - none of which I am...it still grieves me for them not to be close. 

We buried my dog in the "yard" (a/k/a swamp).  We expect to see a paw sticking out of the ground any day now.

We just had to have our cat euthanized on Monday and he'll be cremated.  He'll come back in a box with an engraved nameplate.  He had cancer and no hope of recovery. 

He was an alley cat that we adopted and he was always a tough bastard.  When he was x-rayed we found a slug in him where someone had shot him in his former life.  

That's what we suspect Whiskey died of.  Cancer.  We could've gone through a few more transfusions, got her stable enough to handle testing and biopsies, and chemotherapy treatments, but it seemed like so much torture for such a small kitty.

Sorry for your losses guys. :(

My friend Patti cremated her Rottweiller and she keeps him in an urn.  She also looked into these little lockets that are specifically made to store the ashes of loved ones on a chain around your neck on on a bracelet, etc.  Sorry for your loss...that sucks.  I buried my 17 year old cat Libby at the last house I lived in and I loved that cat SO MUCH, the worse part about leaving the house was leaving the cat buried in the yard... 

I worked as a vet technician for a few years and Rainbow Bridge is by far the best decision as far as cremation goes.  They have a wonderful reputation in the veterinary world and I have not known any vet that has not recommended them.  There are other companies, but they are just not the same . . . .

Your vet should have told you that your pet would be sealed in a box.  There are options (at least we had them) to select different urns or boxes of your choice.  It's been a few years, so maybe things are different now.