Home Again

Watson is home again. I picked up his ashes at the vet's office around 5pm yesterday. I was holding myself together just fine until Carol, one of the vet techs, came around the desk to hand me the bag and gave me a hug. Carol just kept saying "no more bags for you" since she was also the person who gave us our cat's ashes barely two months ago.

I couldn't open the bag or look at its contents until I got home. I had 40 minutes of rush-hour traffic to contend with, and I hate trying to cry and drive at the same time. I swear I must be part German since I refrain from eating, drinking, talking on the phone or doing anything else but drive when I am driving.

Watson was packaged in quite a small, plain, wooden box, varnished to a medium brown with gold clasps and hinges. It is actually the same type of box that our 15 pound cat was returned in, so I found it funny that they managed to stuff a dog over twice the size into it too. It came with a nice card and a certificate of private cremation.

Although he passed on 8/16, he was not cremated until 8/23. I try not to think about his body hanging out in someone's fridge for a week... perhaps I am trending towards gallows humor, but it strikes me both as funny and a little morbid. But if I don't laugh, then I'll cry so the saying goes.

I'd like to do something special with his ashes, starting with finding him a better container in which to rest. I know nothing about urns or where/how to shop for one. Where do you even begin? Can any nice container double as an urn? Are there rules for such a thing??

Whatever he ends up in, I would like to do something special to commemorate him. There is an artist by the name of Sandi Carter Brown who displays her work at the local pet store. I met her over the weekend during the store's anniversary party. She does fantastic work based on photos of your pet..... My original idea was to have her paint his likeness on the container, but I would prefer to find one of higher quality first.

It's been 2 weeks to the day since Watson passed. That fact, plus the arrival of his ashes, has put me back into emotional shock. I have no idea how I feel about all of it. I feel like crying, but am so tired of the tears. I'm just missing my Old Man.....

Here's another one of my favorite photos of him... it's from our first Xmas together back in 2005. At this point, he'd been with us for almost a year. We were in the middle of opening our gifts when I slapped a bow on his head and Rich took a picture of it. You can see just how happy Watson was with the whole affair.