Pet Loss Counseling for Kids: Burial Vs. Cremation

"After euthanasia, you do have to make a decision as to what to do with your pet's body. Depending on where you live, what your living situation is like, you have a few different options. Obviously, if you live in an apartment or you don't have a yard or a very small yard, burial may not be an option, but you might be able to do a burial at a pet cemetery. I think that it is very important to allow children to be able to participate if there is a burial. I know my kids did that a few months ago when we had to euthanize our Great Dane. I think it was a very important experience for them to be a part of. I think it is important that you don't over protect your children but you also don't push them either. If you're getting a child that's very resistant to being a part of the burial process, then you want to be respectful of that as well. It's important for them to know that they do have that option. The other option that you have is cremation and more and more pet owners are starting to choose this option for a variety of reasons. With people moving around a lot, sometimes a burial in the yard is not optimal because they don't want to move and then that obviously have their pets remains with them anymore. So, with the cremation, what we did with one of our pets is that we actually put part of his ashes in this wooden urn right here which you can see is decorated and we have his name on here and his date of when he was born and when he died. We keep this in a very special place along with some other things that remind us of him. Then what we did is we had part of his ashes put in a plastic case so that we could go and spread them at some point. The children have looked at these and we've talked about them. They did not become overly distraught or upset. I think it was very important experience for them to see the actual remains. It is important to let your children know that with cremation that the animal is not feeling any pain. When they're being buried, they're not cold, they're not hungry. It is important, especially with younger children, to make sure they're aware of that. So, what we'll do is when the weather gets a little bit nicer is we're going to go to one of Calvin's favorite spots that he used to like to run and play in and we're going to spread some of these ashes and then we've also got some that we will keep with us forever."