On Burying a Pet

One of the kittens was hit by a car this morning.

I was sitting on the porch eating breakfast when it happened. After the hit the kitten ran into a nearby flower bed and collapsed.  When I reached it it was breathing. I knelt down and knew.

I picked up the kitten, and by the time I reached the porch it was dead.

I laid it on the porch shelves, went inside, found a shoebox. I laid the kitten inside the box, closed the lid, went back into the house, fixed another pot of coffee.

An hour later I gathered up some old tee-shirts to line the box. It wasn’t until I stepped out onto the porch, tee-shirts in hand, that what had happened hit me and I started to cry. I opened up the box, laid down two of the tee-shirts, placed the kitten on them, placed a cat toy in its paws, and then covered the kitten with two more shirts. I closed the lid, placed the shoebox back on the porch shelves, found the shovel, and went out into the backyard.

There are some nice trees in the backyard. There’s a spot at the base of one of the trees where the sun strikes in the morning and spends the afternoon in shade. It was the right spot.

The hole dug I went back to the porch, placed the shoebox gently in the hole, covered it over with the dirt, and tamped it down.

I haven’t buried a pet in nearly four years, not since Guinevere, my polydactyl cat, died suddenly. It never gets easier.

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

14 thoughts on “On Burying a Pet

  1. I’m sorry to hear about the kitten as well—especially when it was something senseless like that. 😕

    (Which one was it?)

  2. I’m sorry to hear about this. It’s amazing how cats can really work their way into your heart, and really painful to lose them.

  3. I’m so sorry to hear about the kitten. I’ve had a number of cats die in my lifetime from old age or sickness, but I’ve never buried them myself. I used to say I was going to bury Lucky, my cat of fifteen years, when I moved into my house as we had a great backyard, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it as I watched her pass on in the vet’s office. I needed to seperate myself. And yet, in a very creepy way, I kept the ashes from her cremation, which I always thought as weird when people did that.

    It’s true what Data said about how one thinks of oneself on the passing of another.

    Again, I’m sorry for your loss.

  4. I’m very sorry as well Allyn. It’s the same thing I had to go through last Halloween, when the black stray I fed died, and the last week of December when my other cat was hit by a car. Hell of a way to start a year. The loss is never quite easy. I guess all this amounts to me saying that I really understand what you’re going through. Most sorry.

  5. Sorry to hear about thr kitten. Losing a pet is tough. I lost one to diabetes, where we knew the end was coming for several months. Another died quite suddenly – one morning, she wouldn’t move and probably an hour or so later she was dead. My sympathies.

  6. I’m literally sobbing right now!
    I am so very sorry! *hugs*
    That’s so sad.
    I can’t quit crying

  7. I think you are not supposed to bury an animal until 24 hours later, after the animal is cold. Also, the vet really should not put the animal in the fridge until it is cold. I learned this from an unusual vet. Pls wait in the future. Accidents do happen, I’m so sorry.

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