I have become morbid! This has been brought about by reading an article in the Times newspaper in which they report that “Germans are laid to rest beside pets”.
My mind also turned to the original and first domestic cat that we know of found lying in a grave next to his/her human companion, in Cyprus. They were buried around 9,500 years ago. Surely it’s completely natural for a person to be laid to rest with her pets?
In Germany, two pet cemeteries have agreed that pet owners’ remains can be buried alongside those of their animals.
A spokesperson for the German Cemetery Association, said:
“We have been approached time and again for this service and so we are now obliging.”
The first cemetery providing the service is in a town called Braubach. The other is in Essen. More pet cemeteries will follow. Currently the rules stipulate that the pets and their owners must be cremated.
At the moment, the Evangelical church has so far rejected the idea of joint funeral services. I have never given thought to a joint funeral service. I suppose at one’s funeral service, which might well take place at a crematorium for people, your pets’ ashes could be brought along and, at the same time, your cats could mentioned at the service and then the ashes merged together into one. Then the ashes could be interred in the crematorium’s grounds or local pet cemetery if they are different places. Or they could be taken away by the executor of the deceased’s Will….
I intend to be cremated. I certainly want my ashes to be placed with the ashes of my cats. Currently, I’m minded to direct, in my Will, that the mixture of my ashes and those of my cats are taken to the Himalayan Mountains in Pakistan where they can be sprinkled from a high precipice, where they can be with the majestic snow leopard, my favourite wild cat, for eternity, without being disturbed.
That is extravagant. But it would make for a nice trip for the executor to my Will 😉 . He could treat is as a fully paid up holiday.
There is no reason why the ashes of the deceased’s cats could not be placed in the coffin if the person does not request cremation.
This is a follow up to a previous article on a similar subject.
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I’ve left my body to medical science/transplants. When my consciousness is no longer inhabiting this body I don’t mind how it is recycled.
My godmother kept the ashes of her beloved pet dog and these were buried in her coffin with her.
As for me, I’m fine with being recycled into Soylent Green for cats (if anything is left after organ donation or medical science has finished with me).
Are you doing to direct in your Will that you are mashed up and made into cat feed!
My belief is that, when one of my cats pass over, they enter the realm of eternal progression. They no longer have a need for me, although their love is everlasting.
Having any presence of their physical form is meaningless. Therefore, ashes are irrelevant. We will reunite in “the realm”.
You are probably right. Keeping ashes is for the person who is still alive. It can benefit him/her.
I was just thinking pretty much the same thing, Dee. I know Monty will be with me in heaven, so it really doesn’t matter where our mortal remains end up. I wonder if he will be a full sized panther in the afterlife. It is what he is in his heart, so perhaps in the world to come his body will be made to match what is in his heart.
So hope, Ruth.
That would be the coolest!
People were laid to rest next to their companion animals in the past because the animal was killed after its owner died. Those animals were seen as an unnecessary expenditure of resources. If it wasn’t a work-animal or for food it was folly — that the owner should take their unnecessary animal with them. Nobody would think it right to devote valuable resources to an animal that served no other purpose than a “companion” to a lonely person. “Companion animals” were the eccentric and unnatural abnormality, not the norm. Even in Egypt cats were specifically bred for sacrificial purposes, and all killed at a young age (Google for: 300,000 young mummified cats found buried in Egypt), then mummified to pay homage to their Goddess Bastet.
Yes, I agree that in Egypt cats were sacrificed and there is a misconception about how the Egyptians loves cats in my opinion because you don’t slaughter them en masse to appease God if you love cat and I have written about that.
I don’t think you can make the assertion that all animals that were laid to rest with their owners were killed specifically so that they could be laid to rest with their owners. Sometimes this may have happened but I don’t think you can claim that it automatically happened every time because we don’t know about individual cases and we don’t know about the case I refer to of the person in Cyprus and the first known domestic cat.
In any case, that is not relevant to this article because the article is about whether a person wants to be laid to rest with their deceased cats when they die. The article is about the emotional situation and the thoughts behind that desire. It is not about anything else.
Even if ashes disintegrate into invisibility, they become part of all that is, no matter what far corners of the universe they end up in.
Jars can be shattered, ashes spilled, so there’s really no way to contain the spirit or what’s left of the body indefinitely.
Only the mind can do that, unless we lose the capacity to remember. If that happens, even a jar with ashes won’t help.
I’m learning that ashes are more important than I realized. Maybe the most valued of all possessions? Are there other items that are treasured as much? It has been said that “you can’t take it with you”, but maybe you can.
Neat idea. I think you can take ashes with you because they can be part of you or what is left of you and they be with you in the mountains for eternity.
Michael, I have already looked into this here. The place where I take my kitties to be cremated when they cross is also a human funeral home. I spoke to them about this since it was my Mom’s suggestion years ago before she passed away that my cats ashes be buried with me when I pass. The funeral director said that yes you can do that. So when I pass, I will be going to that funeral home and all my cats’ ashes will be buried with me. . .♥♥♥
Brilliant. That exactly the sort of thing I am referring to and like. Good for you.
it’s going to be a lot of kitty urns!! I already have 6 waiting and I have 12 live kitties that I am hoping to outlive so they can be with me too. . . ♥♥♥
Diane, Is there a reason that you would have separate urns? Just wondered what your thoughts are on this. Some people might put them all together, since they were all your kitties. And there are people who opt for the “combined” ashes from the cremation of multiple animals, knowing that some of those ashes belong their beloved pets.
Hmmmm…the ashes placed in the coffin…that would be a way for Angel and Samirah’s ashes to be with me when the time comes. Thanks for posting this, Michael! And I love your idea about sprinkling your ashes in the Himalayan mountains. That’s classy!
I want my ashes to be on those icy slopes with the snow leopard for eternity. I love this cat. So independent and able.
That’s a beautiful image.