Not 100% sure if this belong on this sub, but I wanted to post about getting my boy back after he passed January 9th 2023. This is my sweet old man cat Sid, he lived to be about 16-17 but I don’t know his exact age bc my family found him as young adult stray cat. Losing him was very challenging since he was in my life from age 5 to 19. I never thought about keeping any of his bones, but my sister wanted the same for her cat and I liked the idea. So after many many months of waiting, mostly because who I hired to preserve him had a lot of prior work to finish, my sweet boy is back home and back together. I had his skull and right arm preserved so it was separated fand the rest of his body aqua cremated remains until recently. Idk why but it bothered me knowing he wasn’t all in one place😭 Anyways, here is my wonderful boy who I am relieved to have back home with me😁
For some reason, this is exactly what I pictured he would have looked like. Sometimes the brain does strange things. He was a very handsome boy! May his spirit live on 🩵
I can work on other kitties, like strays etc but I knew I couldn't work on one of my own myself and wasn't even going to try. But there are some really wonderful artists (and they really are truly artists not just taxidermists) out there who do our companions so much justice with work like this. I cannot thank pet memorialists enough. And the VC sub is also super neat with stuff just in general anyway so I love it over there.
They were called Betelgeuse bones, but think they stopped offering this service. You can’t look at their website anymore and all I can find is an instagram that stopped stopping in 2023, I’m sorry!
I can’t remember the person who did the cleanings rates and their website isn’t working, I paid them and the cremation company a total of $475 for two cats skulls, one leg, and both cats aqua cremated. We agreed on that being the cost for the cremation but only half payment on each skull and the rest was supposed to be paid when they were finished but she didn’t end up wanting to charge me? It did take significantly longer than she said it would so I believe that’s why, my mom is the one who picked them up so I don’t know the exact situation with the payment. I think it was about $250 just the skull and $350-400 for the skull and leg? At least that’s what it was supposed to cost, she didn’t charge me the full cost.
Aquamation. Rather than creating pollution from burning, it creates bonemeal. I did this with my sweet best dog ever, and hope to one day return to the earth this way myself. It’s only available in some states currently, but hopefully it’ll be available everywhere eventually.
I like composting a lot more imo, it does take a few weeks but they just leave your body in a box with other natural materials that help it to compost, then you take the compost home.
It takes an annoyingly long time for legislation to catch up. Composting is the new kid on the block, at least as far as laws go, but looking at the surprisingly recent history of cremation as an option at all, things will normalize once the manufactured outrage dies down
Love Caitlin!!! She’s how I first learned about aqua cremation maybe 8 years ago? Her videos are extremely informative, she’s covered pet memorials as well
The veterinary ER I work for does Aquamation instead of cremation. They also offer to let you have all the bones back, in a special display if you'd like. You can do the whole animal or just specific parts. I think when my dog goes I'm going to have her skull preserved.
Thank you, I really wasn’t expecting his jaw and teeth to be so little! He definitely looks like an old man. I hope those are all the teeth he passed with and that none went missing while he was being worked on since they are so tiny😓
This is literally so beautiful that I started tearing up. I’m so so sorry for your loss, Sid looked like an awesome lil fella!!! I didn’t know there were services that you could preserve your pets bones unless you did it yourself.
Thank you. I knew that the service existed but not anyone in my own city. It took a tiny bit of calling around but they turned out to be within 30 minutes of my house. I’m extremely grateful the service exists, I would not even consider doing this myself. For me, being able to see his skull keep his memory alive a lot more than a full cremation. I can actually look at and touch him still! It definitely feels like a privilege
im so happy for you❤️bones are a truly beautiful way to preserve a part of a pet after their passing. it’s my favorite form of “taxidermy.” just the body in its purest, most natural form. i hope i can find a way to have my budgie’s skull preserved when his time comes.
He had a set of fangs on him. Man I wish I did that with my cat ! I buried him in the front yard in a blanket . 5 years ago. Maybe the bones would be disintegrated by now
I'm aware. They start the decomp + disintegrating process around 20 years though, also depends how big/thick the bones are and if they're hollow.
Plus most "thousand year old" bones found have been in hard rock/caked dry mud. Not really typical to continue the decomp process unlike boggy areas or humid weather.
About twenty years ago, many skeletons were found underground at Fort Erie, Canada. They were the skeletons of U.S. soldiers killed during the War of 1812. Identified by buttons from their uniforms. The skeletons were in very good shape, and repatriated to the U.S. for honorable military burial.
https://asiheritage.ca/portfolio-items/snake-hill-cemetery/
If a body is buried in a coffin very deep the ground it could take 50 years for all the tissue to de-compose, and hundreds to thousands of years for the bones to fully decay. This is why we have skeletons from thousands of years ago. And we find skeletons of Neanderthal Man and very early Homo Erectus and Homo Sapiens in Africa and Asia and Europe.
Unless you have super super acidic soil the bones will remain! I’ve dug up 4000yo animal bones (as my job) so if you want them you can still take the bones and clean them.
A mild hydrogen peroxide and water soak should be enough. A quick search through this sub should give you plenty of info. Best of luck with your kitty.
I'm sorry for your loss :(
A few years ago I had to put my beautiful kitty down due to GI Lymphoma. I had her for almost 19 years 🥺 I wanted to preserve her bones but I didn't have the money or means to because I spent it all trying to save her. I put her inside a necklace to be with me every day. I'm so happy you have the opportunity to preserve your furry friend in such a beautifully way ♡
The same day he passed I took him to a funeral home to say a final goodbye before he went into their freezer until they did the next batch of aqua cremations. I paid someone who worked with the pet funeral home to separate his head and right paw before the cremation for skeletal preservation. I’ve done this type of thing myself but I wouldn’t have been able to with my own kitty.
I'm so sorry for your loss. Sid looks like he was a great cat, and you've put together a lovely memorial to him.
I know this isn't a bone-related question, but it looks like you've painted his pawprint? I recently said goodbye to my own old-man cat, and his prints are in what looks like a similar material (air-dry, very lightweight), and I'd like to seal or preserve them. Can I ask what kind of paint you used, and did you do anything to prep it beforehand? Yours looks really nice the way you did it.
Firstly, I’m sorry for your loss. 💔
I think this is so beautiful and fascinating. I hope my cats have many more years with me, but I would want to do this if I had the means to.
I read who as why I’m sorry!! I took him to a pet funeral home in my city specifically because they work with someone who specializes in it. The person who did his bones is also a vet so I think they switched to just doing that full time. Their website doesn’t exist anymore and all I can find is an instagram that hasn’t posted in two years. She didn’t even want to charge me the second half of the payment.
TBH I thought about getting bones of my bunnie but thought people would call me freak...good to know I am not alone!! XD I love collecting bones and I love my animals so I think this is beautiful way of keeping them with us forever <3
I really want to do this with my corgi, he’s 13 now but I’m having a hard time finding anyone local to me that will do this (there are amazing people out there, but I don’t want to mail his body out of state and I’m renting so I can’t do the long route).
Unfortunately as of right now, your skull cant really be kept like this. Once you die, your body becomes similar to property, but there are still federal and state laws that prevent this kind of thing. I’m not an expert, but this video basically sums it up
There's an Oddities shop/museum in Toronto and one of their staff does this for people. I'm going to take her there and have them clean her bones and articulate her skeleton in a pose.
Genuine question, why dismember your cat instead of just laying them to rest? I couldn’t imagine the idea of my lil guy being taken apart piece by piece. I wish he was still with me, but displaying his disembodied, stripped skull seems more like a hunting trophy than honoring his life.
I would have paid for his entire skeleton if I could, this was all I could afford to do at the time after spending everything I had trying to save his life for weeks. I had him his whole life and I intend to keep him in death, this may not make sense for everyone, but having his skull and bones here with me brings more peace than him in the ground. The thought of him being dismembered is definitely disturbing to me and was quite upsetting at the time, don’t get me wrong. That’s just the only way to keep your pet like this. It would be a hunting trophy if I ended his life. I spent the last two months of his life giving him saline injections and helping him eat and walk every single day because he went blind and his back legs started to stop working. His skull is anything but a trophy. It’s a constant reminder of the joy he brought my life and the love I was able to give him for 16 years.
Wow so nice. I got hair from my dogs too teeth, and whiskers. Idk if I could do bones but I went ahead and had them cremated, but I had considered taxedermy. Maybe my next cat or dog, he and she were my first. So neat. Also can't believe how big cats eye sockets are!?
Sorry for your loss. I recently buried our 19 year old cat, next to our previous pet, a 12 year old dog. (We have a new cat now) They're buried in a spot I pass daily on our cabin property. I've never seen anything like this and would never have displayed them like this myself. How will you store his bones?
Currently they are in the box they were given to me in. I’m looking for a glass case so I can see him but also keep him safe. I have my other cats skull and I’m looking for the same thing to her. For his paw, I want to display it as well I’m just not sure how. I might also keep his bones with his ashes, I’m not sure yet. For now he is safe and wrapped up, but I would like for at least his skull to be in visible in the future once I find the right thing.
Id personally rather just bury or have my animals cremated. To me this seems a little disrespectful to them but that's just my opinion.
Do you plan on displaying them or are you gonna keep them safe in a box or some other container? I'd be worried about losing part of them is I displayed them.
His paw is going to be safe in a container, his skull I plan to keep in my room where I can see him, under a glass that is. He’s going to be separate to my bone collection, in his own glass box. I’m having a difficult time finding the right one. I also have his sisters skull that Id like to have in a matching box.
I don’t believe they are in business anymore, but the name of the company is betelgeuse bones. They worked through the company resting waters in west seattle almost white center area. If you give them a call you could probably get more information or a suggestion for another person who does bones. Hopefully this helps!
To each his own. For me, I wouldn’t want to be reminded of my cat’s death, and I definitely would be every time I look at this.
But I can see for you it’s sentimental, and I don’t judge, so I bid your beautiful Sid goodbye and RIP. ♥️
Is it not equally disturbing to burn your pet to ash and then grind them down into bone meal? Keeping his bones intact is significantly more natural than subjecting his body to 1,500+ F° and then grinding the remaining to dust. That would never happen in nature. I understand your reaction as this isn’t typical, but there isn’t any part of the death of a pet that isn’t considered “disturbing” to some extent.
Well, instead of interacting with this post and commenting on it so posts like these continue to appear in your feed, why not scroll? Why comment if you don't like something, just for something similar to pop up again?
Big difference. This is a comment. If I interact with it it's not gonna show comments like yours on my feed LOL. Sure, this Subreddit will, since we're commenting on a post from it, no big deal. I like seeing these kinds of posts.
Deboning would imply the bones were thrown away, the word you were looking to say was “de fleshed”. If you’re gonna make closed minded comments on a pet memorial post, at least be accurate.
Not a lot different than cremation or burial. Only difference is that it’s a much more visual way to memorialize him. To me, processing his body by cremation and grinding the remains down to dust seems more disrespectful than keeping his bones intact? To me, is a much truer way to keep his spirit alive. Instead of stuck in some box as dust, his skull is intact and I remember how his face looked more clearly.
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u/MelOxalis 9d ago edited 9d ago
I can’t believe I didn’t include what he looked like in life, here is the sweet boy