Cremation

Fins us on Amazon
Advertise with us
Shop with us on Ebay
The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
It's surprisingly very little. My heart rat Orca came back in a temporary urn and it actually took me weeks to even look inside. He and my boy Ernie are in their temp. urns in a velvet sack with embroidery that reads "Until We Meet Again at the Rainbow Bridge".

I wish that the pet memorial companies would make more 'critter focused' urns . . .I buried my first nakee boy that passed away and my red eared slider turtle in my garden and marked them with hearty plants (a succulent and a hibiscus) . . . now I wish I would have had them cremated, because when we move, they will have to stay here. . .such is life, you learn as you go.
 
When my first cat, Phil had to be put to sleep we took him home to let his brother and the kittens see what happened and to say their own goodbyes. I think it was a good thing that we did let them have that moment. Then we buried him in my grandparent's back yard and my grandma painted a rock with his picture as a headstone. They don't plan on moving and have lived there as long as I can remember. When we had to put Sam down, we got him cremated through the vet. He was sent to us in a beautiful pearly white urn with a copy of the rainbow bridge poem ( first time I ever heard it and even now I come to tears when I read it because I think of my cat) We kept his ashes in the urn until my grandparents came out here for a visit. They took Sam's ashes ( all but a pinch, because we all decided we wanted a little bit of Sam to stay with us) and buried him next to his brother. I drew him up a head stone out of marble with a little picture of a cat and his name and dates. The only down side of the cremation was that our 2 cats( no longer kittens) never got a chance to say their last goodbyes... which I know is important. My one cat has never been the same since Sam passed, he was like a father to Silver. After he died Silver became depressed and paranoid ( he is now afraid of everything ) I can't help but wonder if things had been different had he been able to see Sam after the fact.. instead of us taking him away and never bringing him back.

I hate to think about these kinds of things, but my cats are getting real old now ( turning 15 in July) and I have no idea what I will do when they are gone, but we will probably cremate them and bury them with Sam and Phil. It seems fitting that they be buried with the old boys. My rats are so young( well I guess not too young.. nearly 8 months) that I am not even going to think about this concerning them.

Oh gosh.. now I'm crying :(
 
SQ said:
(bodies are wrapped in fleece, in plastic containers in the freezer).
Click to expand...
Oh man! What i would do to see this whole thread become a conversation in a restaurant! :laugh4:
People all aroud would be like : :shock: :shock: !!!!!!

:lol:

No offence meant to no one! :bow:
It's just the way my brain works. :p
 
I've gotten all my rats who have passed cremated. my vet doesn't do paw prints, but when we started going directly to the cremation place (instead of leaving them with the vet for pick up) we found out the people there do them. so other than the first 2 rats I've lost, I have paw prints of all of my little guys.

I also have an urn to keep them in until I decide where to spread the ashes. it's solid black with gold paw prints. it sits on a base with all my little guys names engraved on it.
 
My personal belief is that we should all be returned to the earth when life is over, cremated or not. It's the whole circle of life thing. Sounds morbid, but a decomposing body can fertilize a plant for quite some time. It give me an enormous sense of peace to look at all the flowers in my memorial garden and know that all my kids are still a part of this world in some way. If I ever run out of space on my property, I will consider cremation. And I don't mean to sound crass, but if we had cremated every little one we've ever lost to this point, we'd have enough urns to decorate the entire house :/
 
I cremate because I still live at home, I don't have a place of my own ..I know when I get a house, I'll live there forever ..but mom and dads house wont be there forever.
 
I wish that I could afford to cremate every rat. I have 2 girls and a boy buried at my parents, it kills me to think that they could be left there someday.. but that's life. I have 3 ratties in the freezer right now but I'm only going to cremate Remmy. I know I could do a group thing but.. I'd feel bad separating Osiris from his brother [at my parents] and I'm going to give Brodie's body to LJ, to be buried where she wants.

I just don't feel that I could put Rem in the ground and walk away. He was my bestie.
 
My rats get buried. While I was renting, I would take them to my dad's house to bury.

Recently my cat had to be put to sleep, I opted to have her cremated privately so the ashes would be returned. When my husband is home next, we will bury her together under one of the fruit trees.
 
I'm so glad this thread has been revived. I've been thinking about this very topic a lot lately. At this point in my life, I have moved many times. And I now live in a house that my husband and I plan to stay in for at least 10 years total. BUT I am sure we'll want to downsize after that, so one day, for sure we will move.

I related to a number of things that others have said in this post. I also believe in bodies being returned to nourish the earth. I would feel that was a noble thing to do with my beloved ones after they pass. It's a way they could continue to live on. BUT my girls have never even been in the yard, and knowing I'll move someday and then not be able to visit their graves anymore really stresses me right now.

So I've been thinking of cremation maybe. Of keeping the body of our first one who goes in the freezer until the last one goes, and then having them cremated together. (although I'm not overly comfortable with keeping one in the freezer for a while, either) At least once they're cremated, I have time to figure what to do with their ashes.

The only other option I can think of would be a pet cemetery. But that to me is more fraught with issues, not to mention costs, and feels far less personal than all the other options.. i.e. their bodies won't be physically near me. That just doesn't work for me.
 
ChrisK said:
I'm so glad this thread has been revived. I've been thinking about this very topic a lot lately. At this point in my life, I have moved many times. And I now live in a house that my husband and I plan to stay in for at least 10 years total. BUT I am sure we'll want to downsize after that, so one day, for sure we will move.

I related to a number of things that others have said in this post. I also believe in bodies being returned to nourish the earth. I would feel that was a noble thing to do with my beloved ones after they pass. It's a way they could continue to live on. BUT my girls have never even been in the yard, and knowing I'll move someday and then not be able to visit their graves anymore really stresses me right now.

So I've been thinking of cremation maybe. Of keeping the body of our first one who goes in the freezer until the last one goes, and then having them cremated together. (although I'm not overly comfortable with keeping one in the freezer for a while, either) At least once they're cremated, I have time to figure what to do with their ashes.

The only other option I can think of would be a pet cemetery. But that to me is more fraught with issues, not to mention costs, and feels far less personal than all the other options.. i.e. their bodies won't be physically near me. That just doesn't work for me.
Click to expand...

One thing my mom has done is bury her cremated pets in a pot with a flower plant or tree as a memorial. That way if she ever moved, she could take it/them with her.
 
For the amount of rats we own/will own, cremation would be quite expensive. Our vet does do private cremations though. We plan on having Sam, Dean and Stew cremated and their ashes to remain together. Our other rats are burried on my mothers property under the apple tree we played in as kids with my ferrets and previous rats.
I was told when you buy an urn, they are marked in cubic inches. Every cubic inch is equal to 1lbs per body weight when alive. We plan on buying a 3cubic inch urn from the same place we bought Masons urn from. I wish I could have them all done though, this site has lots of nice 1cubic inch urns.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top