…to dog mom.
We did the same thing when we put Jessica down. The vet told us that it was illegal, but that if we took her with us, she wouldn’t know what we did with her. We dug a hole three feet deep in the back yard (fortunately, it never gets cold enough to make it hard to dig in coastal southern California). But Stella was cremated (we still have the ashes), and Rerun was as well, though we didn’t get the ashes. I don’t want Ashe and Ember, now two years old, to outlive us, but I don’t look forward to losing them, either.
Anyway, Mary Katherine (who I had the pleasure of meeting about fourteen years ago) has had a rough few years, through no fault of her own. I’m happy to see her life back on track.
For years, all the family pets were buried in my Dad’s back yard in NH. When he died and we sold the house, I tried to think of a way I could dig them up and rebury them on my property in NC, but it was impossible. I’d’ve needed a backhoe on both ends of the trip and a dump truck for the trip itself, so I took the markers and left them in situ. Dad wanted to be buried with the dogs and cats, but also impossible in the timeframe. The ashes were mailed to me, and sit on a shelf next to my desk with a couple of dead cats. Our current cat sits with him sometimes.
Years ago, I had my car parked under the tree out back here, and one wheel started falling into a small sinkhole. I suspected a sewer connection problem and dug it up. Nope – about two feet down, spine bones, about the right size for a child. The sinkhole was the cavity that’d formed from a body rotting completely away over decades, collapsed finally from the concentrated weight of the car wheel on it.
Immediately stopped digging and took pix – suspected the worst – it’d been a cheap rental in an iffy neighborhood for a long time before I bought it – but before I called the cops I checked on the net. Turns out canine spine bones have a distinctive Y configuration, and that’s what it was. Someone long ago had buried their beloved dog under the shade tree out back. I
(aargh. Mentioned lately that I hate your comment sofrtware? resuming where I was rudely interrupted…)
I thought respectful thoughts about my old dog, and this strangers’ dog (I’d only lost the one back then) as I refilled the hole and tamped it down carefully so there’s be no more sinkholes.