When a family dog passes on
I read Dog Man on the plane to Japan. It's a narrative about the life of Morie Sawataishi, who was one of the men responsible for saving the Akita after the war. Something first struck me as odd and a little creepy, and then poignant and touching after I thought it over. He saved the pelts of his favorite dogs after they died. He would stroke the fur and bring back many memories of each individual dog.
What do you think of this memento?
What do you think of this memento?
Comments
TBH it kind of creeps me out, but that could be a cultural thing. In my culture, if something dies, you bury it quickly. Stuffing them or keeping the skins & stuff just feels "disrespectful" for "memory reasons" [ vs, needing fur to stay warm ].
Of course, I don't judge people who do that sort of thing, It's their business to do what they want, it's just something I could never do, particularly to my own pets. ~
I guess it's like keeping the collars, tags, or ashes in a box. Just, their fur instead.
Secondly, I was rather put off at first when I read this, like a culture shock, But I felt like he was super connected to nature, that it only seemed fitting. I am sure it has to do with the Japanese culture back then, but Im not very knowledgable I'm this area. But I did wonder about this aspect of the dog pelts. I don't think I could keep Toki's pelt 10-15 yrs from now. I'll stick with pet graves like I always have.
It's funny that you bring this up though. Just today I took Toki to half priced books and I looked at an Akita book. There was a lady with goromaru's pelt. I believe this dog was mentioned in the dogman. I wonder if it was common practice?
But I don't think I could do this, and I would much rather hold onto other tokens like an ID tag, a collar, a leash, and of course all my pictures. Having been traumatized by videos of Chinese fur farms, I couldn't imagine that happening to my deceased pet. There's something more ritualistic and "clean" about cremation to me. However, I don't know of a local pet crematorium that allows you to deliver the body yourself. All the local vets deliver on your behalf, I think, which forces you to leave your pet's remains at the vet, which I do not like. I would want to be able to take my pet directly to the incinerators. That, I think, would be my most ideal end.
Basically, I wouldn't do to them dead, what I wouldn't do in real life. [ outside of burying them! ] ~
A friend had her Dane cremated but never found a place to 'put' him, so she just has the ashes in a shoebox that she keeps packing every time she has moved. it's been years and years and she wishes she had put him in a more meaningful place back in Wisconsin or something where they lived then. She tells me "Learn from me-Don't do THIS! Make a freakin' decision, and move on."
I am sure when Reilly passes (and I am afraid to say that I have actually thought way too much about this recently as she is a large dog and is 9 with two cancer surgeries in the past 8 months) I will have her cremated and hike out into the National Forest and scatter her in one of our best spots in the forest, then visit her every time I go that way with the rest of the dogs (well, okay, with Juno- Sage wont go). It will never be someone else's yard, and roaming the woods together has always been the thing we do. Her spirit can chase the resident snowshoe hare spirits- that'd be Pure Reilly! I'll put her tags on my day pack, and I Imagine someone we meet on the trail hearing the tags jingling and saying, Oh! heh-heh! I thought you had another dog with you! and me saying, But I dO!
Sage will be more difficult - he wouldn't want to be scattered in the woods. He's a homebody and a mama's boy. I will probably build a container for his ashes, either of clay or carved out of wood, that is shaped like him (but smaller!)- vigilant. A Sage Foo-dog with a hollow box in the body for his remains. It can go on the shelf in my studio, Up High Like a Kai, and looking out the window. This will be a lot of work, but Sage has ALWAYS been a lot of work LOL ...and always a labor of love. My guardian spirit, when he is dead he wont have any fears, and he'll stay with me, where he likes to be, still producing a fierce visage to visitors.
I don't think I could do that to Saya I'd want to bury her or cremate her.
I'm pretty good at making half way decent small statues so maybe when time comes I'll make a life size Saya clay statue! Probably take me forever since I'm better at doing cartoony cute stuff, but I can do realistic if it came to it. I'll have her mouth opened so I can put a clay toy in it since she loves to carry toys and retrieve things.
I can put the statue where I bury her as a reminder..
Animal planet has a new show called American stuffers and they stuff people's dead pets.. The one I saw wasn't a good job the dog just didn't look good and I just don't get it..
Guess different people have different beliefs which I respect that.
I'm with this feeling. I would have loved to keep a coat of my old male Jindo, especially since I hardly ever see coats of his quality anymore, but I wouldn't want to visual the skinning process in my mind. Instead, I just kept a clipping of his shoulder fur and a cast of his paw.
I don't think I would ask for the cast of the pawprint anymore though. I think whoever did my last dog took it from someone else's dog.
It made me also lose some of the connection to the dog's ashes as well since I couldn't be sure that the crematory took care to keep track of things.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/59392872/custom-dog-treat-jars-any-breed?ref=sr_gallery_16&sref=&ga_includes[0]=tags&ga_search_query=custom+treat+jar&ga_search_type=all&ga_facet=
Jesse
I plan on making a pelt closet at the new house.....J/K
I haven't even kept ashes. I thought about it when my GSD passed two years ago, but money was super tight at the time, and after having been there with him through cancer and then the last, final shot, I just knew he wasn't there, and I didn't feel the need to save any part of him like that, though I know it is comforting to some others. I just felt like he was gone, and what I had was photographs, and his memories (and a ton of GSD hair that is probably STILL in the house!)
For anyone interested I can photograph it, knowing that the pelt was an honor to show of Nikki's past dog.
feel it's a privilege to own, but I am very careful with it and don't show it to anyone, unless they understand.
This is in Spring, not in full bloom.
http://gallery.me.com/isabaloo#100376
Where I live, despite having a huge yard, my options are limited. It's not legal to bury my own dog in my yard, nor would I feel comfortable burrying animals as big as Akitas. They practically need a full size grave or I would be worried about unearthing them and the trauma that would cause. There are pet cemeteries, but they are ridiculously expensive.
Cremation is the best option, but again, there is almost nowhere I can legally spread the ashes; the few places it is allowed requires a special permit and of course money. It's not allowed in any of the city parks or national forests we take the dogs to, nor any body of water. Besides, my dogs are homebodies too. So I will be keeping the ashes in a nice box (I like the hollow statue idea!) along with the dog's collar, tags, awards, etc in some little display/shrine like thing.
I guess I don't have as much moral objections to skinning as others do. I've skinned animals myself (rabbits we hunted with slings and traps and a snake that was run over on the freeway but only it's head damaged). It's delicate work, not barbarous butchery. The care it requires to get a good skin is respectful of the animal. I think the pelts themselves (especially if it has a face!) are creepier than the process it takes to make them. But taxidermy is far worse than a pelt to me.
As for not doing something to the pet that you wouldn't do in life, I guess that would rule out cremation entirely....