As Gemma gets older I am begining to worry about what will happen when the time comes.
I am sure she will have to be PTS due to artheritis (Hopefully not for another 5 years at least but think that being optimistic :()
Now when my last dog was PTS I left her at the vets, this was 10 years ago and wouldnt have even considered cremation as it was not common and local then. And couldnt bury her as she was a grey hound. My parents always left their dogs at the vets.
I really wouldnt want to do that with my dogs as they are just chucked in an incinerator :(
I was wondering what people did when there dogs died??
I would like to have my dog cremated and keep the ashes in a tub under a plant in the garden but dont know of the cost etc.
Sorry a very morbid subject but would rather work it out before the time comes, hopefully not for a VERY long time.
My Rabbits I bury in my mums garden as I know my mum and dad wont move for a very long time.
Lea :)

Hiya Lea :-) I also worry about losing my dog, he's 12 now......he's gone deaf recently, and he can't get comfortable at night :-(

He has a heart murmour, so the vet thinks his heart will kill him......if thats the case and he dies at home, then he will be buried in the garden, but if he has to be pts, then i want his ashes back.

I know that when anything happens to him, it will kill me.....because we've had him since he was 18 months old, and because he was an ex police dog i feel safe when he's around :-)

I must admit that our dogs are buried in the garden.  When Dilita died nearly 2 years ago I took her back to my parents as I know that where I live now is not going to be a place that I will stay forever in (not nice people around and about unfortunately) so Dilita was buried at my parents as I know that more than likely at some point in the future I will go back there to live.

Only problem is Gemma is a rottie cross and is 30kg So burying in garden is not an option.
I rent so will not stay here for good and The wter table is so high, you dig 18" down and the hole fills with water.
Mums garden 18" is limestone and they wouldnt want her in the garden, It was bad enough burying 2 rabbits within 6 moths in their garden.(There must be 8 doves, over 4 hamsters, at least 46 rabbits, several fan tail doves. 2 ducks, and that doesnt include the waifs and strays that have been buried over the years, in mum and dads garden. They have lived there 27 years!!)
So only options are leaving at vets or cremation :(
Lea

:( its a horrible thing to do but we all know sooner or later its "that" time (for all living things) :( . I always get the ashes back and my dogs get sprinkled in the same place which is on top of a small hill overlooking where we go for a walk, it just means they are in their favourite place forever overlooking everything and when the flowers grow in the spring they are part of the soil that fertilizes them.  Its nice to think their remains are there everytime I go for a walk :)  I think the cost depends on the size of the dog, I think we paid about £80 to get our last dog back and she was a greyhound.

you can get the ashes back in a casket- like a beech carved one for example- so you keep him/her in a special place, or bury it, they cost about £100 very rough guestimate, you are being very sensible btw ;)
x

I have been through this three times - the first two were within a year of each other (over 10 years ago now) and we left their bodies at the vets.  But the most recent when we lost Jazz at just 7 (4 years ago) to cancer we had her cremated and buried her ashes (which came in a lovely box with a lovely poem) under a new rose bush in our garden - the rose was called Peace.

This was my young daughters first experience of death so it was very tough all round.  But we still talk to her in the garden and her roses are beautiful.

When I was a child our dog was buried in the garden.

It's something we have thought of too this year as the dogs got older.  :-(

We used to bury ours on the farm in Ireland but I'm living in Yorkshire at the moment and don't expect to be here for the rest of my days so I would prefer not to have the dogs buried in the garden.  We are thinking of private cremation when the time comes.

I decided that once they were gone they were gone and I didn't want bodies or ashes.

My freind wishes she had never started creamting and keeping the ashes,a s she now has five little coffins which she doesn't really know what to do with.

My first dog died suddenly and I couldn't think straight so just paid for disposal.

When thinking about it I d3ecided that any others woudl not be treated differently (had this silly feeling it would be showing favouritism).  When Elka was Put to sleep in November I was happy with that decison, and when Tula went suddenly I was happy that I had decided the right thing for me.  I just couldn't bear the idea of them in the cold ground (wineter deaths may have influenced this train of thought).

It's something i hate to think about but i'd never let my dogs suffer.

As my old girl was aging, I carefully though of how I wanted the end to be and I discussed it with my Vet saying, "When I ring and say 'this is the right time', I don't want to have to talk about it, I just want it to be done like this".
It worked very well.  :(

We used to keep goats, and as a kid I had a pet goat that we bottle fed. I had him for 13 years, and when he died I just couldn't face leaving him at the vets and I couldn't face burying him knowing we would be selling our home so I had him cremated by a very, very nice company who were exceptionally understanding. They brought over his ashes in a wood box with a plaque (they cremate all their animals individually, so they don't do any mass cremations), and they made a keyring up with some of his hair in and gave me a poem too. It was lovely at a time when I felt very sad, not only to loose him but to loose an animals that also represented my childhood to me. He now lives on my book case, and I am glad I had it done, although it was expensive (£200 about 5 years ago). I would have this done for my girl when she goes too.

On a very morbid point, but I have always wondered. Can you have an animals put under anasthetic and then injected to be put to sleep? I had to have one of my pets put to sleep once and it too two injections and I never, ever want to have to go through that or have an animal go through that ever, ever again.

Hi Lea

A very helpful book to buy is "Absent Friend" by Laura and Martyn Lee; i know you haven't asked for a book, but it's got lots of good advice, practical as well as emotional :)

If it's possible, I get vets to put to sleep at home, and the body is then left with me if appropriate (ie time wise, ) and then we have driven to the crematorium ourselves the next day. I just felt it was the way I wanted to do it, and luckily my OH doesn't mind driving distances. I feel the journey kind of helps, :)

Lindsay
x

I have my beloved dogs cremated,we have a private place not far from were we live it is heartbreaking as you wait an hour or so,then get the ashes back,you can also have your pets buried there,it is a peaceful place,a stream runs through the grounds,and there is a lovely statue of saint Francis,when my time comes ,my dogs and cats ashes will be buried with me.

Sheila.

We have ours cremated and the ashes back in wooden caskets. It costs a bit over £100. Bella and Polly have been on the shelf for several years as we haven't decided where to put them yet. If we haven't decided by the time one of us goes, we'll have them in our box with us. Mind you, it'll get pretty crowded!

our first dog, Shandy, was PTS at the vets & left there. Last year when the time came for Solo to be put to sleep, I called the vet & he came out an hour later & she was PTS where she had always laid, under the apple tree. He was lovely & he took her away & she was individually cremated & came back in a casket with a beautiful poem. We had a little service & buried her back under the apple tree.

when each of my Rough Collies and my cat passed we had them cremated .... they came home spent the night with us then the next day we buried them in the garden in a special place under a victoria palm tree.

It cost me approx £90-£100 .

Roni

How strange i decided to read this thread..as only earlier today i found the reciept from when we lost our darling sass...
Everything was itemised....And i got to thinking about our darling...I still have her ashes as i once said..the first time it snows
we would scatter her ashes...she loved to frolic around in the snow...the snow has been and still i cant bear the thought
of putting her out....I know in my hearts of hearts she isnt in the casket but as long as i have her ashes a part of her is still
here with me...sentimental as it is parting with her ashes at the moment isnt right..

I'm with *Brainless on this - but we do have them PTS at home if possible and we keep a lock of hair and their collar and lead. The leads may get re-used with other dogs but are a continuing link with their predecessors. Also endless family photos on which particular dogs mark particualr stages in family life.

*This is a totally inappropriate name for this poster (who is very far from brainless) - and it always sounds so rude!

Ah bless.  Mind Scatterbrain would be very appropriate, but never thought of that at the time |I chose my moniker

When I had my first dog pts, I had her cremated and had her ashes.  At the time, we moved quite often, so the ashes moved with us.  I must admit that I always felt a bit awkward about it.  When my parent's dog died, we put both sets of ashes under a rose bush.   However, they no longer live there.  Since then, I have not had the ashes returned.  Once they have gone, i have my memories, lots of photos and family members who so often have the same little foibles and habits, all of which keep them in mind.  Like a previous poster, I also have their collars and leads, and I will often use those on a family member.

I had my GSD, Tushka, put to sleep five years ago as she had cancer.  I took her to the vet and stayed with her whilst she was pts and I left her there.  After such an awful evening and night I phoned the vet the next day to say I wanted her back so she could be cremated.  She was collected by the crematorium people and we got her ashes back shortly after.  For me it was the best thing I could have done.  I don't have to detail how upset I was, as I know anyone who has lost their beloved pet knows what it feels like.  I actually felt more at peace with the whole situation when I got her ashes back in a casket.  She sits next to my computer, with her id disc and a framed picture of the two of us together.  I have two more GSDs now and will do the same when the time comes, then when I go, they can all come with me!

i also had my bitch pts about 4 years ago due to cancer (it was 3 days after her second birthday)we stayed with her(have never cried so much in my life). we had her cremated and had her ashes back in a nice little box and she is sitting on the side keeping the other 3 inline well thats what i like to think

We had to have our 15yr Golden retriever pts back in july.
we had him cremated and the ashes back in wooden casket
we keep his casket in the living room.

i lost my staff bitch 6yrs ago and left her at the vets(was with her when she was pts) this played on my mind for ages afterwards,even though i knew she was not with us anymore i had all sorts of thoughts, was they treating her right
what will they do with her, it was a total nightmare.

so with Baron i know where he is and i can still speak to him
and if i move he will alway come with us.

Never have we brought any of the dogs home with us always had the feeling once they've gone they've gone. Their spirit and memories will always be with me. But for some reason (maybe the length of time) when Oscar my cat was PTS on Dec 18th 2005 aged 23 &1/2 then I brought him home and buried him in the garden to the right of the tree he spent summers lying under as it gives dappled shade. Oddd I could not leave him -maybe its the length of time he was with me the same will happen to his sister Cleo she's 23 + too.

Karen

I always have PTS done at home. The vets know that I'll stay but tell my husband when its time for him to go and lock himself in the bathroom. We have individual cremation, get the ashes back and bury them in the garden .... except for one extra special girl who is on the sideboard waiting to go over the cliffs of Antrim with me when my time comes.

We had Mars and Min PTS at home. We had them both cremated and were wrapped in their favourite blankets as it helps me feel that this will keep them warm :) We took Mars in the car for her last journey but we had Min picked up as Mike had to sell the car we took Mars in as he always felt he could see Mar's head appear in the back of the car which freaked him out too much

Their ashes are both buried at the pet cemetery under a lovely tree :)

It is a lovely peaceful place next to some lovely countryside and imagine them both running around chasing bunnies :)

I try not to think about it too much, hopefully we are still a long way away from that. But I plan to be with them whether they are at home or at the vets, and to have them cremated and scatter the ashes in their favourite places. :-)

I think most vets nowadays actually have contracts with their local pet crematorium, so the pets are normally cremated together and the ashes scattered in the garden of remembrance. However, they're often shoved in a freezer at the vets till they're collected.

I took my Phoebe up to our local pet crematorium myself and had an individual cremation done. I waited for the ashes and brought her home the same day as it only took 2 hours. It was all very dignified and the respect they treated both myself and the dog with couldn't have been better if she'd been a human. It goes on the weight of the dog at the crematorium I went to and is between £60 and £120, but obviously if the vet sends your dog and you have a casket, it will cost more. Phoebe was 40 pounds and I didn't have a casket as I didn't think any of them were nice enough (they do give you a very sturdy cardboard box anyway, so you don't just get a bag of ashes given to you), so it was about £85. If you do it via your vet, beware of getting 'token' ashes back as this is just a shovel full of ashes from the communal cremation of your dog rather than her being done individually, so you may not even get any of your own dog back and at best it will be mixed with other pet's ashes.

You'll be surprised how many pet crematoria/cemeteries there are - I think there was about 3 within 20 miles of my house. Just google it to see.

If you do it via your vet, beware of getting 'token' ashes back as this is just a shovel full of ashes from the communal cremation of your dog rather than her being done individually, so you may not even get any of your own dog back and at best it will be mixed with other pet's ashes.

Sorry to contradict you but where did you get this from ?

The one we use collects pets to be cremated individually asap & return the ashes with a day if requested. The people who own it are lovely & they return the ashes in person at a pre arranged time.  Pets that the owners don't want to have the ashes back are cremated more than one at a time(including dogs/cats that have no owners RTA victims etc)& their ashes are shattered in a lovely wood that they own.

It may happen at the one you use but it doesn't at them all

My dogs are all here with me

> Sorry to contradict you but where did you get this from ?

Sorry Moonmaiden, I should have explained it better than I did. A lot of vets and crematoriums offer this service - I can give you a list of websites that do if you like. But it's a totally different thing than if you pay for your dog to be done individually. If that's what you pay for that's what you will get and it will be around the £100 mark or more. If you pay for token ashes it will cost consderably less - about £30 I think - so is quite an attractive propsition until you realize you'll be getting a random sample of ashes back that may not even contain a trace of your beloved pet and certainly a bit of other people's.

Here's a quote from just one UK website
(Google "Kings Hill Cremations" if you want to confirm it):
"Shared Cremations: Your horse or pet as with an individual cremation will be collected individually before being communally cremated with other loved animals. A token of ashes will then be returned in a casket of your choice."

I'm just warning people that they may be misled if their vet/crematoria offers them this kind of service. How well and caringly worded is that!

> It may happen at the one you use but it doesn't at them all

Actually it doesn't and states so on their website that they can't return ashes from a communal cremation. That's part of the reason I chose them as I had 3 crematoria in the vicinity to choose from.

Prices around here are much higher for individual cremation.  I know my freinds dobes were all in the £200 region.

:rolleyes:Guiness is now 6 years old and i love him as i would a son.We have already dissccussed that when its time for him to leave us he will go in dignity,thats if he doesnt pass away at home in his sleep or what ever.If he needs to be PTS to end any suffering then so be it though i know it will kill me to have to do it.We will call the vet out if he gets beyond having a good life as he so hates the vets.I wouldnt want to upset him anymore than needs be.I know i couldnt be with him when the time comes as it would break my heart so that would be left to the hubby to comfort him in his last few minutes of life.We are going to have him cremated and his ashes bought home in a casket with a brass plate and his name engraved on it.I couldnt let him go,ever,so we will keep him at home with us till the time came,if ever,that i thought i could let him go.I dont care how much it will cost,after all if it was your son that had to bury would you worry then? It may sound silly but hes my soul mate and the best dog that anyone could ever wish for. :)

Price has nothing to do with it, I just didn't want anything physical to keep, as I don't like the idea of ashes or bodies in the garden, I think of us as spirit not earthly remains.

I don't want a grave for myself either, I want to be cremated, and what happens to the ashes I don't care. :D

Why dont you have a cremation and then scatter the ashes?

Didn't see the point if I wasn't going to keep them.  I didn't want my thoughts of them connected to bodies or ashes, but think of them as their spirits which had flown. 

MY only regret with Tula is that she died quietly on her own with no-one in the other room realising. 

With Elka who was put to sleep with me holding her it was very peaceful, and I said my goodbyes to her essence then.

When Asti died in September, I took her body to the vets to be cremated as I didn't want to bury her and I know her bodyis just her life form, her spirit will always be with me, but the thought of her stuck in a yellow bag as clinical waste, in a dustbin and then onto a van to be disposed of with a lot of other animals was more than I would want for her so she was individaully cremated and now sits in my cupboard so that sh can come with me in the future if I ever move.  

My vet uses Elysian Fields.  http://www.elysianfields.co.uk  Asti came back to me in a scatter box and that was just over £180.

My first Munster Addison died out on a walk with me and he was buried under the apple tree of the house I used to live at. 

We have had pets who died in winter cremated, (because the ground was frozen), then buried them in our large backyard in spring.  There are a couple of stray cats that got hit on the road back there too, along with other assorted small wildlife such as squirrels. 

My only concern is, what's going to happen to our little cemetary when we move?  We will get old ourselves and be unable to keep up our property.  I hate to think of someone planting a new tree or extending the garden and digging up our buried pets, even though DH (oops, mean the OH) has dug down a good four feet each time.  I would rather scatter ashes in places where the critter has played and lived but he won't go for it.

Newspaper articles a few years ago pointed out that here in Ontario, Canada, we have the same cremation worries as in the UK and must specify, and usually pay more, to have our pet cremated separately.

>I didn't want my thoughts of them connected to bodies or ashes, but think of them as their spirits which had flown.

I'm with you on this one, Brainless. I don't want "funerals" and certainly I know I couldn't sit at my computer looking at a casket of ashes - which is no criticism of anyone who finds this a comfort, I hasten to add - but it's just not how I want to remember my dogs.

I do keep their collars and leads and while the leads get passed down to the next dog, the collars remain as a memory of all those happy walks we enjoyed together.

As for cremation or burial, this depends on where the dog died. Ruggs who went at the grand old age of 17 did so at home and he's buried under the oak tree which he spent so much time watering! Our children were younger then and this was what they wanted too. But Bob was pts at the vet and I didn't want his ashes back.

Our 2 Dobes are buried in the garden. We were aware that the first was going to have to be PTS and so the hole and a wooden box my dad made were both ready. The second happened very suddenly and so we left him at the vets for a couple of days whilst my dad spent most of the 48 hours digging and making a box big enough for our huge male!

As illogical as it is I also felt bad leaving them outside in the freezing cold, as someone (sorry forget who) further up mentioned.

What worries me now is what will happen when we move. I live with my parents - my brother and sister have moved on, and this place is too big for us now really. We live in a big house with a large garden along a main road and more and more of the houses around here seem to be getting bought by developers. The 4 houses next to us were all bought up by the same company who built a posh new development and landscaped everything. Sorry to be so horribly morbid but does anyone have any idea how long the bodies will take/have taken to go into the earth..? Our first dog was buried about 10 years ago, and the second almost 2. I can't bear the thought of their bodies being disturbed :(

I have lost two dogs on the table and another was PTS at home.  In all cases I left the vet to dispose of their bodies.  As far as I am concerned they were well cared for and loved during their lifetime and all that was left when they dies was the "container" of their heart, soul and spirit, the essence of the dog itself had departed.

As the old saying goes, the best place to bury a dog is in your heart.

However do what suits YOU.

You put it so much better than me :D

Thanks everyone.
I didnt expect so many replies.
Gemma and Me have been through so much together in the last 9 years that when she goes, so will a big part of my life, a life I dont want to ever repeat but she helped me through.
The more i have read the more I want to have her cremated.
Around here you can have it done at the vets, or there is one pet crematorium in lincolnshire I could use.
I just hope I dont have to find out for a very long time.
Lea :)

My feelings are much the same as Brainless and Tohme. I have always left the vet to dispose of. My friends have gone, and ashes or no ashes doesn't change anything. If I kept ashes they would never get scattered and I would never let go,my collection would get bigger and bigger till I died myself, then what? My garden is paved completely for the dogs, so no chance of burying either.

What if a much loved dog is buried in the garden and you later want to move?

I've got my memories.

Dawn R.

We have lost 3 of our beloved dogs over the years - we always had them cremated and the ashes returned to us . I then bought a rose each time which I planted in a lovely earthernware pot placing the ashes underneath . I made sure that the roses linked in with some essential key character of my dog ( for instance Amber's rose is the exact shade of his coat and is called Amber Memories). All three pots have come with us when we moved house and the roses are still going strong.

Yvonne

My dog Fagin passed away on Christmas Eve.  I too had thought about what I wanted before this day came, and knew I just couldn't let him be cremated along with loads of other animals.  I had a individual cremation done, and his ashes were returned to me in a wooden casket with engraved nameplate.  I wasn't sure what to do with them once I got them, I wanted to put him in the garden that he loved so much but like others don't want to leave him when we move.  I have just bought a sundial, with his name engraved on it, I thought this was perfect as he always loved to sunbath.  I am now on the lookout for some kind of hollow pillar to fix it to.  We are going to place his ashes inside the pillar, so he can be in the garden, but come with us when we move.

Julie

I have just collected the ashed from my 8 month old siamese and they were £100.
I have the ashes here from 3 of my dogs and hope that when I have gone they will all join me!

emma x