Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just kept the tags. And my memories.

+1 I've never grasped the point of keeping anyone's ashes, frankly.

You can go and spread them out somewhere the dog liked - the backyard, the lake, the creek, beach house stuff like that.

Anonymous wrote:We kept the ashes of our first dog. The cremation service that our vet uses has 3 options, cremate with other animals and don't return, cremate with other animals and get ashes back ( though you would get a mixture of all the animals that had been cremated at the time), or cremate individually. At the time we couldn't bare the thought of our dear pet being cremated at the same time of other animals, though it seems silly now, so we paid the high price for individual cremation and have the ashes on a shelf though have talked about spreading soon before we move.

We did the same thing with the individual cremation. I basically was so out of it when we had our dog put down that I just decided to do whatever the "most" option was, just so I wouldn't regret it later. I wasn't up for really thinking about the decision I was making so wanted to make it easy on myself later.

We spread his ashes fairly quickly after he passed away as it was painful to have them around and I knew that the longer I held on to them, the more likely it would be that the ashes would never get spread and would be hanging out on a shelf forever.

We kept the ashes of our first dog. The cremation service that our vet uses has 3 options, cremate with other animals and don't return, cremate with other animals and get ashes back ( though you would get a mixture of all the animals that had been cremated at the time), or cremate individually. At the time we couldn't bare the thought of our dear pet being cremated at the same time of other animals, though it seems silly now, so we paid the high price for individual cremation and have the ashes on a shelf though have talked about spreading soon before we move.

We buried the ashes in the backyard and planted some perennials over that spot.

I needed some kind of ritual.

Anonymous wrote:I just kept the tags. And my memories.

+2. DH wanted to keep the ashes, but we didn't have anywhere specific that was special to our dog where we wanted to place them.

No, I didn't keep the remains of my last two dogs. I hate the idea of having to tote around sentimental items for the rest of my life. The dog is gone and I have pictures. Good enough.

We buried them under a tree in the yard. I would be sad to not have kept them, but this way I know they're somewhere meaningful without having to actually hold onto the ashes.

No. My mom kept the ashes of one of her dogs, and we had to figure out what to do with them when she died- we buried them in her back yard beside several other of her pets.

The ashes will have to be disposed of eventually, either now or later.

We didn't keep our cat's ashes. He was put down at the vet and we said our good-byes there. We have photos and our memories.

Anonymous wrote:I just kept the tags. And my memories.

+1 I've never grasped the point of keeping anyone's ashes, frankly.

I didn't keep them for a pet but have moments of regret.

We didn't keep ashes. We also kept tags. And we put our dogs' feet in cement so we have their prints.

I just kept the tags. And my memories.

We didn't. The dog needed to be put down, we all went to the vet to say goodbye to her, and then we walked out. A few days later we went back to the vet to pick up her collar and tags. No idea where her body went. Don't care, if she's not alive.

My family never has, though we've loved our pets dearly. Our elderly cat is ailing and I was wondering what I will choose to do when the time comes.