I can only remember clearly two of my pets that died and what happened to them. When I was about 5 my large extended family got a dog. He came to be my dog since I was the youngest and the rest of the large family moved away as they got older. He died in our apartment when I was 17. Since he was “my dog” it was up to me to find out what to do about him. I called the ASPCA and they picked up his corpse for a fee. This was in NYC many, many years ago.
Many, many years later, after I was married and had children and had a cat, in Brooklyn. She turned 16, got sick an died in less than a week. My husband called around and found that if he took the cat to the dump they’d take it for free, so that’s what he did.
I live in the suburbs with my immediate family now, which includes two cats. They are hale and hearty and both about 10 years old but I envision some time in the far future re-enacting a sit-com scene in which me, my kids and my husband say solemn words over a hole in our backyard.
So, what ways have you disposed of your non-human loved ones?
Since I live in Tennessee where it’s very rocky, I either have the vet dispose of the body after euthanasia, or have the animal cremation guy take care of the body. When I lost my mare I had to get a backhoe in to bury her.
Yep, came home with the daschund from the vet, wrapped in a blanket, prepared a hole in the back yard, called my grief stricken family, said a few words and we all (4 of us) participated in covering her up. Just seem to add some meaning to the life of a pet who gave us about 13 years and a nice way to say goodbye.
With one exception (our last dog who was 60 lbs and who was picked up after her death by the city and, I presume, cremated) do it yourself burial. Although cremation has long been the choice in my family of origin for humans who popped off (and remains mine), the critters just get stuck in a hole. Our cat who died at 15 or so several years back got burried in the flowerbed, inside a pillowcase, with handmade cards and poems the kids and I made.
Even most fish I’ve had who died on my watch, into a hole…even if it is in a big pot on the balcony. Only a few times have I flushed one down the toilet (tiny ones).
That’s what I do with my dead animals…not that I have tons of them or anything.
ETA, never had a horse die on my watch, despite growing up with them…a backhoe WOULD come in handy in that event!
Haplo lived to be 16, so I don’t remember what we did with previous dogs when they passed, but we buried him in the backyard. My boyfriend was shockingly sweet about it - got me a wicker box to put him in and had the hole dug before we got back from the vet.
I build a coffin, it’s just a plywood box, but I make sure it’s watertight and I put a soft blanket and a toy and paint it black. They get planted by the back fence, all in a row. I mark an initial on the fence. There’s six now. Two went MIA. Even the finch and the mouse got a coffin.
There’s a great big oak tree to the side of the yard. It has two dogs, two ferrets, and several cats buried under it. There are piles of rocks over each of the graves so we know which spots are, um, taken.
Dog, cats, and hamsters all got buried in the back yard. I think fish mostly just got flushed, but we might have buried one or two of them when I was very young, too.
The dog got a plaque and a dogwood tree planted over him, but I don’t think most of the cats are marked. Except for the last two: My nieces insisted, so they each got a ceramic cat statue over them.
Sent off to St. Francis Crematory. If I had a yard of my own, I would bury them. I plan to be cremated, though, so it seems - parallel - to do the same for them.
My brother and his wife have their dogs cremated. They keep the ashes and the plan is that when my sister-in-law dies, the ashes of the dogs will be buried with her.
Their cats get buried when they die.
We bury all of our animals, except for the occasional duck or chicken and those just go into the garbage. That probably doesn’t sound very nice but even with five acres, and burying the dogs, cats, and goats, we start to run out of room after awhile and the stuff I have less attachment to (poultry) doesn’t get quite the respectful burial the other animals do. I have an aging herd of goats and have lost six over the last few years.
When I’ve lost horses and ponies in the past, I had to call the rendering guy. I hated it but had no other way to dispose of them.
My in-laws have 5 acres in the Sierra foothills. There’s a particular tree on the property that most of the family pets have been buried under.
We had a cat a couple of years ago who was hit by a car out in front of our house late one night. He is buried in or backyard, despite City regulations prohibiting such actions.
Small pets when I was a kid got buried in the backyard. Now I let the vet dispose of the bodies after euthanasia. But only for pets.
Some of the rest of the animals, we eat. I raise sheep and chickens for that purpose, although there’s a dog-killed pullet in the freezer now waiting until trash pickup day. The can gets too ripe if you put them in too early.
I have Ye Olde Buddhist Pet Cremation Service on speed-dial, having lost 3 dumplings (err, cats) in under a year. An older gent wearing a somber black suit comes in a black car and picks up the remains, and returns several hours later with a tasteful urn, still warm from the…uh…you know.
And for no additional fee my deceased dumpling gets Buddhist prayers chanted for him several times over the course of the following year.
The bereaved can store the urns at the temple and go visit, or have the urns returned. I have mine on a small table in the guest room, with pictures of the deceased in happier times.
Joke answer aside, our pets generally get buried in the backyard. (Except for small fish, those guys get flushed.) We put them in a plastic bag and into a hole, then make a little marker for them.
