For most of us, pets are members of our family just as much as people, and the loss of a pet can be devastating and leave a hole in the family. It can be hard to think of the perfect way to memorialize your pet, but there are many ways you can honor its life and ensure that its memory lives on.
Instructions
Finding the Perfect Way to Memorialize Your Pet
1. Get the whole family involved in a pet memorial by holding a funeral for your pet in your yard. Invite family and friends to come and share memories. Use easels and posterboard to make photo collages from pictures of time spent with your pet. Consider lighting candles for each guest to hold during the service. If you choose to bury your pet in the yard, give people the option to place a toy, dog treat, or other special item alongside your pet.
2. Consider including a headstone, whether you bury your pet in your yard or somewhere else. Many services allow you to order a headstone for your pet and will deliver it to you or the grave site. You can also purchase a kit including a headstone mold and concrete to create your own headstone. This can be another way to get the family involved and personalize this tribute to your pet with touches from every family member.
3. Cremate your beloved pet, if you prefer, and keep the ashes in a decorative urn beside a framed picture. You can also place items in a memorial box, collage or shadow box along with clippings of your pet's fur, its collar, a photo and some favorite toys.
4. Sprinkle some or all of your pet's ashes in a backyard garden and then plant flowers in the soil. In this way, the loss of your pet will symbolically provide the foundation for new life. Consider placing a headstone or other type of marker somewhere in the garden.
5. Make a donation in the name of your lost pet to an animal charity, your state's society for the prevention of animal cruelty, or a local animal shelter.
6. Commission an artist to create a painting from a favorite photo of your pet, one that features your pet alone or one that family members appear in with your pet. Frame the painting and place it in a special spot in your home.
Tags: your yard, your your yard, bury your, family involved, including headstone