I was keeping a very stiff upper lip until I clicked on Harvey’s picture.
The best kitty in the world is still with me, and he is a handsome tuxedo as well.
I will be hugging him a little tighter tonight; I am so very, very sorry for your loss.
Me too. 
I think the hardest thing to get used to is missing the Bedtime Ritual.
I’ve picked up Harvey’s ashes.
The SO had a doctor’s appointment, and she said something about running errands. I have to go out in about an hour, and I don’t know if I’ll be here when she gets home. I put the cardboard box on the table next to the window, and I’ve covered it with a dark bandana. She’ll see it, and she’ll probably suspect what it is. But at least she won’t see the cardboard box sitting there with Harvey’s name on it.
She’d planned to pay the vet bill and for the cremation. But she’s working per diem and has her college loan to pay. My credit card is already melting, so it doesn’t matter if I paid for it. I think she’s taking the loss better than I am, but at least I can spare her the trip to the vet’s office and the drive back with a box next to her. I just hope she gets home before I have to leave.
There’s a tree in the corner of the front yard. Big cedar. I think I’ll bury the ashes there, where we can look out from the front window. There are polymer ‘stones’ that can be engraved. ‘HARVEY, 2004-2012’ I should probably build a box, sealed against the wet, and stained and varnished for longevity. I can get a small plastic container to put it in, and put some gravel in the hole for drainage.
The top of the cardboard box was ‘soft’, so I assumed that it simply contained a bag of ashes. The SO opened it last night, and the softness was due to bobble wrap. Harvey was in an urn shaped like this one, only without any decoration on it. It’s dark grey and looks like stone. (It isn’t; that’s just the way it’s made to look.) The SO thought it was very nice. She’d never brought pets’ remains home before.
She put the urn on the mantle and said, ‘Now I don’t want to bury him.’ She likes the little urn. She shook it, and I said ‘Don’t shake the cat!’ She said, ‘He can’t feel it!’ She said that we should keep the urn inside rather than burying it out in the cold since Harvey was an indoor cat. I said he’d prefer to be inside where it’s warm.
After a bit I said that the Humane Society has lots of cats looking for a forever home, and maybe in a couple of months we can bring one home. She gave me ‘a look’ and said, ‘We’ll see.’ Yeah, too early. For me, too; but I think we’ll need a cat eventually.
That was very nice of them, and that is a nice urn. It’s good that you can decide whether to keep Harvey’s ashes or bury them - whatever you think is most appropriate.
That is so very very cool.
My bud (Little Guy, 4/86 to 6/06) and his mate (Bertie 6/90 to 03/07) share a unmarked wooden box on top of one of my low bookshelves, surrounded by cat toys. Their pictures (the best ones I have) are still on my fridge and will be there for the rest of my life.