# Now what?



## Silo (Dec 25, 2017)

We have 2 dogs in ashes; one in an urn and the other in a wooden box. Each has a place on a shelf with their picture right next to their ashes. I suppose everybody has their own way of handling the ashes. For us, this feels right, for now. My grandmother always had an urn of her beloved dog sitting on her shelf and then was buried with the ashes when she died. Do what feels right for you. There is no time limit.


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## rabernet (Feb 24, 2015)

Our last dog was Karl's heart dog. Her ashes sit on his end table by the bed, so that she still "sleeps" next to him.


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

I have an urn on a little table, with Tesia's leash and collar, a box with a clipping of her soft ear fur, and a little water colour of a girl and her dog on the beach. I have two little velvet bags with smaller parts of her ashes that were separated so I could sprinkle them in her favourite park where we played ball, and in the lake where we also played ball for hours in the summer. For some reason, I haven't done that yet. She's been gone five years already.


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## cwag (Apr 25, 2017)

rabernet said:


> Our last dog was Karl's heart dog. Her ashes sit on his end table by the bed, so that she still "sleeps" next to him.


This whole thread makes me cry but especially this. The love lasts forever.


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## rabernet (Feb 24, 2015)

cwag said:


> This whole thread makes me cry but especially this. The love lasts forever.


It really does. We discussed "heart dogs" the other evening. How Diamond was his heart dog, and I loved her with all my heart. And he said "and I love Noah with all my heart, but he's YOUR heart dog - and that's ok".


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

Okay. I will add, the little table Tesia's urn is on, is also beside my bed. For the same reasons as mentioned above.


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## Neeko13 (Jul 10, 2010)

I had two of my bff s pass within 6 mos. of each other..They are both on my fireplace, in beautiful urns... i have their pic, and their collars with them...I feel they are still apart of our lives there. We redid the living room couple years ago, and it was a big production of moving the boys, I didnt let anyone else help me..It had to be done just so. They are back in the living room, on the fireplace, and they will stay there. I get a lil nervous when the grands are over, and they go near them, but i've learned to relax... Take your time, and do what you want to do, when you want to do it...there is no time table on grief....


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

It's such a personal decision. There is no time frame in which you have to do anything. 

I personally could not hold onto the ashes. So we took both ours out to a favorite place that we know they loved going to, and spread them in the running creek where they had played. I still see them there running through the water and fields when we go visit. 

Do what feels right to you, even if that's just letting them be right where they are.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

I feel it's a very personal decision also, take your time to decide whether you want to keep them or spread them in a favorite spot you shared with them. 

I had six Urns belonging to my previous dogs, last fall I went out on a boat and spread their ashes in the InterCoastal Waterway. They all loved playing and swimming in it.


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## swishywagga (Nov 13, 2012)

I have my Barnaby's ashes in his little box with his photo placed above, I look at it everyday and smile at the memory of him. I agree with the others it's a very personal thing.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

My mom upset us kids way back when she took Charmy's ashes and spread them out on the back hill where he used to sit and "survey his world". To my mom, it made sense. To us kids it weirdly was like her putting him back outside and away from his family. That and we were going, "What if we move away?" 

So the two boys we lost since then - we have their ashes in wood boxes in a curio cabinet (in our living room). And every time my mom brings up the subject of spreading the ashes, we all get tense and put our feet down about it. 

I have seen people turning the ashes into artwork? 

https://www.spiritpieces.com/?gclid...jDw7bt8pO5prH8Oww9zVGX-_cqEzMsU8aAiuSEALw_wcB

I think I would like to do that.... but even just keeping the simple boxes on a shelf suits me as well.


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## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

I still can't look at the box containing Ruby's ashes. It's in a cupboard in my office.

I hate that box.

However, her "Life is Good" collar and leash, along with her agility leash, the one she received for her first provincial championship win and used for all her subsequent wins, are hanging on my office chair.


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## Rusty9294 (Mar 2, 2018)

I agree with the need for possibly moving and not wanting to leave our beloved pets behind. I thought it was just me thinking about that, so I'm thankful you mentioned it. Sigh. I miss both of them.


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## jdavisryan (Jan 28, 2018)

When our first Golden Moses died we planted a dogwood tree on my parents' country property where he loved to visit, and sprinkled his ashes in as we planted. We also have a portrait of him framed and hung where we see him each day. His big grin always makes me smile.


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## Zoeys mom (Apr 26, 2008)

I lost my Zoey on February 17th, 2017. Her ashes are in a box beside my bed. When it’s my time to go, she will be buried with me. I can’t imagine not having her with me forever. I also had her paw print tattooed on my shoulder with the saying “I’ll meet you at the bridge”


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## LynnC (Nov 14, 2015)

My Cosmo loved hanging out in the hydrangea bushes so we buried his and his sissy Harley's ashes there together. We lost them 2 months apart and knew they wanted to be together. We left them in their boxes so if we ever wanted to dig them up to relocate them we could.


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## Altairss (Sep 7, 2012)

I have been having this same thought. We always buried our dogs at home but when we moved and I had to leave them behind it really upset me. We can't dig on our new property without heavy equipment so I have both Boots and Sparkles in small urns. I was supposed to go spread their ashes but I haven't and can't seem to do so. I think about it but just not ready yet I guess.


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## Piper_the_goldenpuppy (Aug 26, 2016)

Oh y'all, this thread is making me cry! With Mae, I had her ashes placed into two boxes--one of which I scattered at the top of a hike we used to take all the time, that she loved, and the rest are in a little wooden box that I keep at the side of my bed with her collar and tag. 

My childhood dog (Buddy), absolutely loved being on the boat and in the ocean, and so when he crossed the Bridge our family took the wooden box with his ashes scattered them into the ocean at a certain channel marker in the harbor. It became "Buddy's buoy." Several years later my parents moved, and my mom wished she had some of them leftover, but she keeps his collar hanging in our mud room. 

It is such a personal decision--I don't think you can put a timetable on it, or that there is any "right" way to grieve.


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## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

*Our dogs*

We have all of our four dogs who have crossed the Bridge: Munchkin, Gizmo, Smooch and Snobear's ashes in their boxes (white plastic) with their pictures in front of them, in our Family Room. That's where we spend most of our time.


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## Gleepers (Apr 20, 2016)

Darn it all. 
I just made myself cry with my own thread. 
Not cool!!


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

I have four urns, Rusty, Tess, Libby and now Tugg. They sit next to each other in my office on a shelf. I don't really know what to do with them either. So they sit there. The newest one is Tugg from just a month ago. To be perfectly honest I don't find a lot of comfort in knowing they are there, I do though find comfort in the hundreds of pictures I have taken of my dogs. But because it always seems like the right thing to do and bring the ashes home after I lose a dog, I do. I thought about finding a spot in our backyard under an oak tree and putting them out there. Just haven't done it yet. Not sure what prevents me.


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

Rusty9294 said:


> I agree with the need for possibly moving and not wanting to leave our beloved pets behind. I thought it was just me thinking about that, so I'm thankful you mentioned it. Sigh. I miss both of them.


This was exactly why I decided to have Tesia cremated and not buried. I knew if she were buried in one of the pet cemetaries in Toronto, it would mean I would never be able to move away from Toronto, because I would not want to leave her alone. I do like having her "with me."


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## pawsnpaca (Nov 11, 2014)

The remains of all my bridge-kids (canine, feline, and one camelid) are in individual boxes with their picture on a memorial shelf in my living room, with their collars and leashes hanging on pegs below. However, sadly, that shelf is getting a bit crowded, so I am considering taking a small amount of the cremains and putting them either into a glass ball or heart (Rainbow Bridge Hearts is my current favorite, although there are other companies that do this), and/or into small glass beads that can be turned into a necklace or bracelet. Or there are even companies that work with your pet's DNA so a memorial can be made for a living pet (https://perpetuadnajewels.com/). If you search the internet, or www.etsy.com, for "pet memorials" (or "pet cremains memorials", etc.) you will find tons of very talented artists out there willing to take a bit if your fur kid and put into something beautiful that you can keep with you forever...

When the shelf gets too full someday, I'll have to find some place beautiful to spread the majority of the ashes. I know my kids' spirits are with me every day... it won't ultimately matter where the remains of their bodies end up... at least not to them...


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## Silo (Dec 25, 2017)

There are pet cemeteries, too. Pets can be buried in a cemetery just like people. We have a few of them around here, but I still like having their remains close to me.


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