As some of you may know in March I had to put my precious cat to sleep. I ran in to a dilemma that a lot of apartment dwellers may run into with the passing of a pet. What should I do with his remains? I grew up in Iowa in a house with a large back yard. Whenever a pet died we buried them in the backyard. I have no yard so I made the decision to have my pet cremated. I have the box sitting on a bookshelf in my bedroom. I have had visitors who come over who look at my bookshelf and ask “is that your cat” surprised that I had him cremated sitting in a box on my shelf. I know a lot of people put them in urns and have them in their house. I thought of this, but I am a huge animal lover and plan on having a lot of pets in my life time, so I envisioned all these little urns lined up on my living room shelf. Not quite what I had in mind. So I thought about scattering his ashes in a special place. I adopted him in Denver thinking it might be nice to bring him back to his birthplace, but then I think of him alone in the outdoors with out any company and that makes me sad.
So to those people who ask about my cat sitting in a box I the bookshelf I tell them about the plan I have in mind. I also have a dog named Helmut. Hopefully he is several years from passing on, but unfortunately when he does I plan on joining Helmut and my cat Art and scattering their ashes somewhere meaningful to them or maybe in my yard if I have one at the time. Then neither will be lonely.
Nikky Hughes
Pet Portrait Artist
