Relocatable dog coffin

stevetodd

beachbeth wrote: »

I had my beloved Cavalier King Charles Spaniel die last weekend. She was a gorgeous girl and, as she was 9, I knew I only had a limited time left with her. She had the most horrendous gastroentiritis and couldn't fight it off. (Now my other dogs are ill with the same thing, although they are younger and seem to be recovering.)

I was absolutely devastated and still am. I couldn't think of her being cremated and we have her buried in a nice spot in the garden. It is a personal thing I think - some people prefer cremation and some prefer burial - no right or wrong.

I know we won't be moving for a long while yet and have accepted that if we ever do then we will have to leave her behind.

Yes I feel exactly the same way about burying, although some people on here don't seem to understand.

The problem is that I can see us moving in the distant future so it looks like due to the complications of exhuming a dog, that cremating might be my overall best (but not ideal) choice. As burying him in a pet cemetry would mean if we moved out of the area he would not be near us.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

My brother runs a cemetary and crematorium.
If you did bury your dog and then dug him up to take with you.I warn you after you opened the grave it may not be pleasant.Even if the coffin is intact the leakage of any smell could be very distressing.He says the smell that comes off some coffiins when opening family graves(if they dig too deep)to bury on top can be awful if the coffin has leaked.
Sorry to be so graphic but I can't put it any other way.

lesley1960

Can you imagine how hard it would be to exhume your dog? emotionally I mean, would you be prepared to go through that? At the risk of sounding harsh depending on how long the dog has been buried what you dig up could be pretty horrifying,plastic will not allow a quick and clean decomposing .

Maybe I am odd but I have buried my cat when she died at home ,but when my ( much loved ) dog was put to sleep I didnt want a cremation nor his ashes .

stevetodd

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

My brother runs a cemetary and crematorium.
If you did bury your dog and then dug him up to take with you.I warn you after you opened the grave it may not be pleasant.Even if the coffin is intact the leakage of any smell could be very distressing.He says the smell that comes off some coffiins when opening family graves(if they dig too deep)to bury on top can be awful if the coffin has leaked.
Sorry to be so graphic but I can't put it any other way.

If you read the post above yours you will see that I have more or less reluctantly accepted that cremating may be the overall better solution.

Thanks for everyone that contributed something useful, on a happy note I am about to take my dog for a walk up to Box Hill which he loves

LittleTinker

When your dog does die.....are you even going to let him rest in peace?

Or will he be forever dug up and moved around?

foreign_correspondent

stevetodd wrote: »

Thanks for everyone that contributed something useful, on a happy note I am about to take my dog for a walk up to Box Hill which he loves

Sounds good - I am trying to motivate myself to get in the shower and take mine out round the local woods.

simontheiceman

The hairs on my neck stood up when I read the start of this post. I had this exact scenario a few years ago. The owner wanted to be able to move th pet after burial and had buried in a plastic box. On exhumation the remains were part decomposed. I got a further (lengthy) phonecall about this with them wanting to know how to get the rest of the "meat" from the bones. I suggested that path labs use boiling but this would be hard to do. This client was more tenacious than I can imagine as that is exactly what they did. They rang again to say that there were still bits of sinew and the like attached to the bones. Lengthy discussions followed much like the above and they decided that industrial caustic soda was the route for them. They did this (can you see how this is becoming). They got their bones but boy what a cost...

foreign_correspondent

oh blimey - are you sure this was a dog they were talking about and that they weren't a mad axe murderer trying to work out how to dispose of a body?

I could not face that, although I believe they use boxes of maggots to clean bones for diplay (deer skulls etc), which I can appreciate the logic of and reasons for. I could not start taking my dogs remains apart though - it would be like dissecting a family member.

ETA - what did they want to do with the bones? - do they have some sort of pet ossiary, like human remains are kept in some countries? If all you have at the end are some unrecognisable bones in a pot, I cant help but think that cremation would have been a quicker and healthier way of achieving a similar outcome..

chucknorris

LittleTinker wrote: »

When your dog does die.....are you even going to let him rest in peace?

Or will he be forever dug up and moved around?

What part of:

I have more or less reluctantly accepted that cremating may be the overall better solution.

which is what the OP said did you not understand?

stevetodd

chucknorris wrote: »

What part of:

I have more or less reluctantly accepted that cremating may be the overall better solution.

which is what the OP said did you not understand?

Thanks but on online forums you just have to accept that people are going to type things like that