I guess I would rather think about all this before the time comes, instead of having to think through this while dealing with the grief. So I would appreciate any experience you all may have had.
The 17 year old cat who has been letting us share his territory with him since we moved into our home is fading fast. When the time comes, I would like to bury him in one of his favorite areas on our property. I am just not sure what I should put his body in. The only specific info I could find online recommended using a thick plastic bag, then placing that in a metal box, and burying it three feet down.
I would prefer something more natural. We live on several acres in a very wooded area, and see nature taking care of the dead all the time. Now I don’t want to witness the scavengers picking over our long time companion, but I am wondering if it is wrong to just dig a deep hole and place him in it? Or maybe just wrap him in a towel or blanket, and place his body in the hole?
One other odd thing I read said to wait until his body was cold before burying. Has anyone ever heard of that? Would that make any kind of difference?
And on a related note, any advice about our dog? I know she will miss the cat, and be looking for him. Any advice on whether it is better for another pet to see another one be buried, or better for them not to witness it at all?
Sorry for what might seem like silly questions, but I have not had to go through this as an adult. My childhood pets were just taken to the humane shelter. But since this cat pretty much came with the house, I think it more fitting that his body stay here.
Our two cats are 15 and 10, so we’ve been thinking about this too.
We lost two other cats and buried them both in the yard, under a tree near the garden, about three feet down. We put them both in cardboard boxes wrapped in a soft blanket. Well, a piece of a blanket.
Scavengers. Hmmm. I suppose there’s probably nothing more “natural” than one carnivore being eaten by another one, but it seems disrespectful to let it happen to a pet. Plastic and metal probably aren’t necessary, if they’re wrapped in something and buried deep enough. Maybe plant something over the spot?
When my dog died we had her cremated, but I had other childhood pets (like a parakeet) that we buried in the yard in a shoebox. A cardboard box seems adequate for a cat to me. A metal coffin seems like overkill.
I’d think that’s just to be sure the animal is truly dead so you don’t accidentally bury an animal that’s merely unconscious.
Personally, I wouldn’t let the dog see it. I’d be worried that it might just encourage the dog to try to dig up the gravesite. Even though I know animals do miss each other sometimes, I don’t think it would really help to see the burial.
I’ve never had to personally bury a pet; thankfully my parents took care of that side of things. They’d just wrapped the body with a blanket and bury it in a deep hole in the back yard. We’ve had plenty of dogs out there and have never had a problem with the bodies being dug up. Just make sure the hole’s deep enough, and pack the earth well after you’re finished. I do seem to have vague memories of a friend of the family coming to help dig the hole and seeing it come up past his waist, so that’s probably the kind of depth to go for. Oh yeah, if possible, get a friend or two to help you dig the hole.
My parents always made a point of letting our cats see their friends being buried, just so they’d know where they’d gone. However, I’d imagine that a dog could be a different story altogether because of the possibility of digging. Unfortunately, I have no idea if my parents let the dogs see the burial.
Kittens with problems, abandoned by the brood queen who couldn’t be nursed are buried in the yard of my former home.
My two feathered pets are buried in the woods of my current home, along with other kitties who have succumbed to old age, cars, and various malaise.
After a visit to my current dwelling, prior to settlement, I was returning home to Philly and saw a kitten sitting in the middle of the two lane road, in a downpour. I grabbed said kitten, dried him off, and took him to the vet. Long story short, the kitten had to be put down, and he was wrapped and stored in my fridge until I could return him to my current dwelling for interment.
My oldest cat and my mom’s dog died within a month of each other a few years ago. They’re buried side by side under a tree at our old house. There was a beautiful massive piece of granite covering the spot when we left. The new people may move it, but they should be relatively safe from scavengers by now. They’re the last in a line of cats buried in that yard. We lived there for twenty-two years, and we’re cat lovers. When I had to have my calico, Lucy, put to sleep last month I had her cremated. My new neighbors are snoopy enough without them staring at me burying my cat.
-Lil
Somewhere there is a large concrete block with a creamy ferret center.
My ferret had to be put down years ago. I dug a 2 foot hole, dumped in some concrete mix, added the ferret, covered him with more concrete mix, added water, and then filled in the hole with dirt.
I’ve buried two cats. Well, a friend prepared one hole for me; but yes, two friends lie in backyards.
The first was a cat I owned since I was 12. She died when I was 24–it was late at night, and she hadn’t come home. When I went out to look for her at about midnight, I found her body on the front lawn. Sadly, she had been hit by a car. Realizing that the only choice available to me at that time of night was to either bury her or wait to take her to the vet for cremation the next day, I opted to bury her in our yard. She had enjoyed the yard very much, and it seemed fitting to put her there.
The next I wrote about here on the SDMB a few years ago. I can’t seem to find it, but basically, after our cat died, I called my friend at the farm our cat came from. My friend dug the hole and put some straw in the bottom; by the time we arrived, all was ready and we laid our little friend to rest on the farm where he was born.
I agree with the depth–I went down three feet, if I recall correctly. Too deep for any curious animals. I can’t help with the question about letting other animals watch–in the first case, our other cat wasn’t interested; in the second, our other cats were at home, and not at the farm with us. And I believe we wrapped the bodies in a towel or blanket.
We’ve got a veritable graveyard of everything from mice to cats. The only animal that went off for cremation was our old shepard. He was just too big. I’ve always done boxes or bags, usually with a stone or piece of log as a marker.
Word of warning - bury undescented skunks DEEP. Poor Reekie left quite an impression in the neighbourhood…
Our cat Pixie got mauled by a dog when she went into its yard. We dashed her off to the vet, but she died in surgery. We let our other cat, Zen, sniff the body so she would know Pixie was dead, then we buried Pixie in the back yard. We wrapped her in a towel with a can of tuna and her favorite toy (a ribbon on a stick) and put her in a hole 3 feet deep with a paving stone on top.
I’ve got a pet cemetery at my place. I probably have 20 critters buried here. We’ve gone the plastic bag route, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Wrap your kitty in a cotton sheet or something similar. He’ll go back to the earth more quickly.
I recommend cremation. It’s inexpensive and they give you a little urn to remember kitty by. Best of luck to you.
My lovely kitty, who is passed out cold on the bed as we speak (er…type?) is 17-ish and while she is still now in fairly good health, I’m pretty sure that she will live with me (and most likely only me) until the day she dies.
I live in an apartment in a very urban area. There’s no nice patch to bury her in. What do people do in this situation? The only two options I’ve thought of are to toss her in the dumpster (heartless!) or take her to a vet (who may or may not ever have seen her - I’m pretty hands-off since she’s older anyway*) and ask them to take care of it.
The last kitty I had lived to 21 or so but she lived with my parents and was euthanized at the vet’s so I assume the vet took care of it.
*I love my cat, but I don’t have a lot of money, and working in a hospital and watching humans get so much intervention that seems ill-advised affects me. She’s old, she’s had a good life. She gets fed, petted, a clean litter box, etc. If she started exhibiting signs of lethargy and sickness at this point I might take her to the vet to see if it’s an infection or something easily dealt with; otherwise, I will attempt to make her as comfy as possible and we’ll wait it out.
I’ve only ever buried small pets in the garden - rodents and birds. I think a plastic bag is a terrible, awful idea, especially for a larger pet such as a cat or dog - partly because it’s just the wrong place to be putting plastic and partly because in the unlikely event that you or someone else might have to dig in that spot in the next couple of years, you’ll have manufactured an exceptionally unpleasant situation for them.
Your pet, no matter how much you loved it, will return to the soil - it’s really best to respect this process and not to use anything that will interfere with it. Burying in a cardboard box should be fine, or even a wicker basket or something, but what happens to plastic-wrapped corpses is just horrible - worse than anything you could be hoping to prevent by misguidedly wrapping with a bag.
Many vets have contracts with cremation services. My vet lets you pay a small fee (I think it’s $35 or so) to have a cremation without receiving the ashes back, or more for a burial of the ashes at a pet cemetary or to get the ashes back.
Don’t wrap him in plastic, for reasons mentioned above. A towel or something is fine. If you are seriously worried about the grave being dug up, put a large rock on top, or plant a bush or something on the spot.
I’ve buried several cats in back yards. Even though they were lovd as pets while alive, whn they are dead, they are just a dead boy waiting to be consumed by natural processes. So I’ve just buried them deep enogh so they won’t be accidentally disturbed, but without any covering like a box or bag. So, in a few months, all that would have been left would have been bones – though I never went back to check on this.
Just remembered something. When our cat Toby got run over about 13 years ago (wow, 13 years already! that’s over half my life), Mum initially tried to find an old towel that we wouldn’t miss to wrap him in. But my sister, who in theory “owned” Toby (of course in practice he owned each of us equally), insisted that he be wrapped in her own favourite towel.
I reckon that was a nice thought, and I suggest doing something similar. If your cat has a favourite blanket or towel for sleeping on, consider burying him in that. But even if he’s like Toby and loves all blankets and towels equally, you can still put some thought into giving him a nice shroud.
Junior the Wonder Dog and WC (wildcat) the High and Mighty were both buried in the backyard of our last home. Mr. Adoptamom dug fairly deep holes about 3 feet deep. Junior was wrapped in an old quilt he loved, and WC an old towel.
Junior and WC were the very best of friends for 15+ years. WC passed first and Junior was an important part of her burial ceremony. For a few weeks afterwards we would find him sunning himself atop her grave. Was a pitiful sight and I don’t know that he ever fully recovered from the death of his best buddy. He passed a year later and we buried him right next to her.
We planted kate jasmin bushes over on their graves in their memory, in part because they used to play hide and seek in those kind of bushes at our old place in the country, and partly to keep anyone from trying to dig there.
This sounds silly, but I’ll own up to it anyway. If you ever move from the home where your beloved pets are buried, expect to feel a twinge of returning grief, especially if the pets were long time members of your family, as Junior and WC were to ours. We moved last October and it hurts my heart a bit that we left them there. At times I wish that we’d had them cremated so their ashes could rest with us in our new home.
When my dog Scooter passed away suddenly last year, I buried him in my mother’s back yard. I dug the hole about 3 feet deep*, wrapped him in an old blanket and that was that. Last week I noticed that the grass over Scooter’s grave is a lush, deep green while the rest of the yard isn’t doing so well.
*I had planned to put him in deeper, but the soil in Houston is mostly clay.