My cat passed away this morning - what should I do with her dead body?

Iguana

1jacks64 wrote: »

My cat sadly passed away in the early hours of this morning. I don't know whether to bury her in the back garden, have her cremated at a pet crematorium or, as I am aware some people do, have her stuffed and put on a shelf at home?

What have others done with their cats when they have passed away?

I have cat insurance with NFU Mutual. Does anyone know if they would pay to have her cremated?

If you bury her in the back garden she needs to be buried quite deep or foxes will dig her up (according to the vet). My vet advised me to put the body in a black plastic bin liner.
Having animals cremated can be quite expensive; when I've had this done I haven't had the ashes back; they told me they were scattered in agarden of rememberance.

ben500

Iguana wrote: »

If you bury her in the back garden she needs to be buried quite deep or foxes will dig her up (according to the vet). My vet advised me to put the body in a black plastic bin liner.
Having animals cremated can be quite expensive; when I've had this done I haven't had the ashes back; they told me they were scattered in agarden of rememberance.

Your vet if you don't mind me saying so is taliking shlte, unless your overun with fox in your area this is very unlikely, fox that wander into or reside in urban areas do so because of the abundance of food not the lack of it and would not need to go to the effort of digging up a corpse. To inter in a plastic bag would slow down the degredation process and prevent those insects that perform the process from accessing the corpse which will in turn result in putrication and resultant odour and damage to the surrounding soil. Paper or wool or some other biodegradable product should be used, if unfortunately some kind of carion feeder finds and removes the coprse then again that is part of nature and essentially eco friendly and your pet has not passed in vain but provided sustainance and life to another beast.
In fact if you know you are going to be residing at that property for the next two or three years I would go so far as to say the nearer the surface you inter the quicker the process will be although some skeletal remains may rise to the surface if you don't go below 12" anything more than that and the critters from both surface level and underground will have access to and decompose the body in no time at all. Sorry if it all sounds a little clinical but science is a !!!!! sometimes.

tomstickland

When the stray that adopted us died (very sad day) we brought him back from the vets and buried him in a hole that I dug.

RoCas

Sorry to hear your cat died. I've not had to deal with a dead pet but I imagine I'd want to bury it in the garden.

Lillibet_2

wickedwitch wrote: »

I did once work with a woman who also buried her departed cats in the garden and each time they moved house (three times that I know of) she made her husband dig up their remains and re-bury them in the new garden! She didn't think this was at all odd and I'm amazed her husband did it once never mind three times!

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Our cat is buried in our back garden, shortly after we planted a young shrub over him which 2 years on is flourishing & if/when we move we will take the shrub with us so that Gomez stays with us in a manner of speaking. I often talk to him via his shrub! (No, he has, sadly, never answered)

As for the people who have been quoted £400 for a private cremation (it only costs an additional £32 for use of our local crematorium for a PERSON by the way!) or been told thay can't get ashes back from a cheper option, my mum had her cat cremated last month for the princly sum of £55 & got his ashes back? I suspect some vets just can't be bothered or else are raking in the money even more than we thought!

Hugs to the OP:grouphug:

bulchy

So sorry to hear your cat died. When our beloved Rosa died almost 3 years ago, we buried her in the back garden, in the spot where she used to lie (she flattened loads of flowers/plants I tried to plant there) and we planted a miniature rose tree,snowdrops and forget-me nots. I also plant a few of whatever bedding plants I have for the summer. Its nice looking out of the kitchen window and seeing her rose tree flowering where she used to lie, especially as on her anniversary, all it had was a single red rose, rather appropriate I thought.



Sue

anniewoo

Sorry to hear about your cat.

I don't have any experience with cats,but when my dog died suddenly at home a year ago,the vet came and collected his body and I had him privately cremated and his ashes returned.It cost £100,so I am sure a cat would be cheaper.

Burying his body in the garden was not an option for me because he was a big dog,but I have his ashes in a little wooden box with his name on and I say " good morning " to him every day when I get up and " good night " when I go to bed.

That makes me sound really weird now I read it back,but I still miss him.

getcarter

We buried our cat last year in the garden with a blanket and a toy, put a large stoe with her name engraved on it, I like to know she's still nearby...........

Carter

Ps Sorry about your loss

Mogkat

Sorry about your loss. We lost one of our cats suddenly just a couple of weeks ago. I was flapping about what to do with him because we're likely to move so I didn't really want him buried. I see that you have buried yours but for others who find themselves in the unfortunate position of needing some cremation services, this site:

http://www.appcc.org.uk/

lead me to a very nice place where we had the ashes put into a curled up cat wooden ornament which now sits proudly on a shelf in the living room.

oldandhappy

For the person who said that foxes don't dig up shallow graves our beloved Sonny died at 23 years old and was dug up, very sadly on two occasions. We lived in Town at that time, although we did have foxes around it was a terrible shock. When we lost our beloved Oiga Puss over two years ago now we buried him deep with a slab over him before his memorial more so because our area is very active with foxes and badgers.
You made the right choice in burying your Puss in the garden. Your sad memories will change in time. Mrs Happy