Our 18 year old buddy passed away a few hours ago.
My husband and I have never dealt with pet loss even in our home country.
I called the number for pet cremation services that our vet gave us a few months ago “just in case”.
All they could do at that hour is advise how to store him until morning. He’s in our freezer and we’re staying somewhere else tonight.
I appreciated how kind the agent was. He advised us not to make any hasty decisions regarding cremation until we’ve had some processing time.
He gave us a brief description of the different plans but I couldn’t really focus on what he was saying.
For those who have experienced pet loss:
What kind of service did you go with? Were you happy with it?
1 comment
Firstly, I’m sorry for your loss. It’s been over two years, and I still get broken up thinking about our Captain.
To answer your question, we had our guy cremated the following day (he passed in the evening, after which my wife made the call.) They advised us to use ice packs and some towels/blankets for preservation. To save some money, we went with a middle of the road package, which basically included some flowers, a pillow/bed for him to rest as he was cremated, an urn, and a box/memorial that the urn goes in. We then bought a cardboard box and decorated it with messages of love and remembrance, and placed him inside for transport to the facility. Once there, while they they arranged him with the flowers and bed, we provided them some pictures and a message to print on it the urn. We also picked out some cellphone ‘straps’ that could be made with his picture. They gave us some time to visit with him beforehand, and after the cremation, they arranged his bones out (the seeing of which I could barely handle, and which even now has me in tears) and we took turns picking them up with chopsticks and placing them in the urn (as is the Japanese custom). They gave us some final time to reflect, and we came home with his remains. It was a trying day, but the staff were incredibly considerate and very kind, giving me the space to have what could have been somewhat embarrassing outbursts (as I mentioned, I was not really prepared to see him post-cremation).
In any case, it will be a tough time for you, no doubt, and I wish you the strength necessary to see it through.