After they've gone

[Daisy]

We are all feeling very sad for Mimi who has just had to say the painful goodbye to a much-loved cat.

Many people choose to scatter their little friend's ashes in their garden and mark the spot with a plant, tree or memorial, but I'm wondering what you have done or will do when the inevitable happens?

This wasn't much of an option years ago, and I've always had my doggies cremated but not buried or scattered their ashes. Instead I have a 'place' for remembering the 4 dogs I've lost while we have lived here. It's different for each dog, but as they are all on my regular walking routes I say 'hello' to each one as I pass by.

[Gemini]

It is the saddest part of pet ownership isn't it Daisy?
We have always buried our cats, as there has been a garden and someone strong enough to dig. If I was on my own I would go for the cremation option, or if it were a bigger animal.

I plant something on the 'grave' and I paint a stone with their name on. We have buried three cats beneath the apple tree since we moved here ten years ago. I often talk to the girls (my two who lived to 19, OH's who lived to 14) as I hang out the washing

[Mimi]

At the moment I am talking to a space at the back of the sofa where she loved to sleep.
When we get her ashes and scatter them under the tree I will also be able to talk to her when I hang 9ut the washing.
Daisy and Gem it helps helps to talk to them doesn't it x

[Gemini]

It does Mimi xx

[Daisy]

I does, Mimi. I talk to Rusty every time I dust one of the wooden mushrooms made by OH - he loved to chew it and I won't throw it away. In the Forest I say 'hello' to our border collie in a particular car park, and our last lab down by the stream where he always went for a paddle. Clyde is always on the path where a butterfly landed on him not long after we lost Rusty, and Rusty at a fork in the path where he would always run ahead and then stop to ask which way to go.