This is a bit morbid but practical nonetheless. Some people bury their cats at a pet cemetery. There is a pet cemetery not that far from where I live. There is at least one in New York, USA. There are probably many more. Well, you may have heard that New York’s Division of Cemeteries has instituted new regulations allowing people to have their cremated remains buried with their pet. It was banned until recently but I fail to understand why.
I don’t know how popular this will be. The first question is how many people have their cat or dog buried at a pet cemetery? I would have thought most people have their cat cremated. Some people, like me, then take the ashes home.
In my case I want my body to be cremated and the ashes mixed with the ashes of my cats, which are in an urn in the living room. But then what happens to the combined ashes? That, I am not sure about at present.
I’ll probably have them scattered over a place or buried in a place that I love. I just want my ashes to be with the ashes of my cats for all eternity.
I am actually surprised that there was a ban on the ashes of a person being buried at the grave of their pet. I can’t see anything wrong with it but I can see a lot that is right about it.
I don’t know what the rules are across the USA or UK on this matter. I just know I want to be with the remains of my cats when I die. That is that for me.
This is an entirely emotional decision. There is no DNA in ashes so there is no direct connection between the person or the cat and the ashes in an urn. Ash is ash wherever it came from. Actually that appears to be inaccurate. There may be slight differences in ash composition depending where it came from. For a person it is made up of calcium phosphates with some minerals.
I left a response to Marc’s comment about how my girlfriend dug up the bones of my dear Missie so that I could have then cremated and then take then with me when I moved. It was tough to do it. Nice girlfriend. She had 4 kids!
This is an interesting thought Ruth. I respect your views on that. I am not sure I feel I own the ashes. I just like having them near. I touch the urn sometimes and say a few words.
I didn’t tell you Marc that with my first cat who died on the road – the cat I truly loved totally – I buried her in my garden. I was living in a detached house at the time. When I moved because I was burgled twice, my then girlfriend disinterred her on my request and I had her bones cremated (an individual cremation) and they are with me and always will be with me. Binnie’s ashes are with her in the same urn.
I would have thought that 99% of people agree with you including me 😉 My father always said that people these days live too long (he must have meant in developed countries). He was right. He died at 92 totally, fed up.
absolutely – so if there’s a chance it is true then all the more reason to be good in this life. I don’t think it works backwards in that sense. I think one is always moving in the same direction so not worried about coming back as an animal abuser. The main reason I tend more towards this line of thinking is because of the way my life has gone and some dreams I have had that were very specific. The seed doesn’t fall far from the tree either. I don’t believe in the concept of ‘random’ for that matter.
I hope and pray there is no such thing as reincarnation because I really don’t want to come back to anywhere on this planet, in any shape or form.
The description ‘a vale of tears’ fits it exactly for sensitive caring people but I wouldn’t want to come back as an uncaring person either because there are already too many of those.
My guess is there probably isn’t – therefore the last meaningful thing you can do is make sure your remains are dealt with in whatever way you choose. I’m sure after you die you find yourself as a newborn child elsewhere on the planet with, obviously, no memory of anything at all. But that’s just me. The only way you can ever gain any insight into your previous life is by overcoming the problems your were born into this life with since they are the only things that are brought with you – what you do in this life has consequences for your next life – which is why it’s important to do your best 🙂