For dog lovers like us, losing a pet hits you just as hard (if not harder) as losing a human family member. After all, our pets truly are family and we grow to love them unconditionally, just as we would a son or daughter. And just like the humans we love, it feels nearly impossible to find ways to best honor their lives once they’re gone – nothing ever seems good enough.
It’s just as daunting having to contemplate whether to bury them (which we don’t recommend unless it’s somewhere you know you’ll always be able to go back to) or have them cremated and store the ashes at home (which can feel quite morbid or unsettling for some). So what are some other alternatives you can do to memorialize your fur-family once they’ve crossed the rainbow bridge? Here are some ideas we have:
- Wrap their collar around their water dish and create a succulent garden. This is a great way to repurpose some of their things that you may not be ready to let go of just yet, especially if there are no other pets in the family they can be passed onto.
- Repurpose their ashes into a precious stone, adorned on a ring, bracelet, or necklace. If you’re one of those people that doesn’t want to hang onto the ashes, this may be a great way to still make use of them in a way that isn’t so unsettling.
- Donate to your local, or favorite, dog charity in their name. This idea is even better if you rescued/adopted your late pup and a very humble way to honor their memory.
- Create a collaborative, physical or virtual, book of their life. Whether you add pictures online or paste them into a scrapbook, compile all of the photo (or video, too, if online) memories that you and your family have shared over the years.
Did you do anything of these to memorialize your pup, or have your own ideas to share? Tell us in the comments!