best friends forever. FOREVER.
i work with pets, i have pets, i've lost pets, and it's always heartbreaking, i know. it's natural to want a keepsake. when we had to put my dog to sleep i kept her collar and leash, because they smelled like her. i still have them here in my bedroom. but i never thought of putting her dog-smelly collar on a stuffed animal and wrapping my arms around it in the dead of night, and i like to think that i would never indulge in the sort of "rose for emily" pathos being catered to by comfort pets™, the makers of plush pet-replica urns designed to literally embody the memory of your faithful fuzzy friend.
oh, no. that's not right. it's really not. and here's something even less right:
a year. a year this grown woman has been cuddling the synthetic-material-encased ashes of her pet. and you thought your pup's habit of gnawing on the legs of the kitchen table was evidence of profound separation anxiety. way to enable, joelle's mom. don't encourage her to take up watercolors or volunteer at a shelter or anything healthy like that, it's really best to give her a foolproof way to evade reality and scare off new friends. why heal, when there's comfort pet™?
oh, that's right: because you're NOT CRAZY.
oh, no. that's not right. it's really not. and here's something even less right:
My shih tzu callie was hit by a car and died last year. I couldn't bear to put her in the ground. I wanted her with me always so I had her cremated. All I got back was a hard box so I slept with a picture of Callie under my pillow and cried for days. …My Mom couldn't bear to see me so upset so she took Callie's cremated remains and gave me a Comfort Pet. Callie is in the Comfort Pet that looks like her. Now I can sleep with her and she even sits on my lap like she used to when I watch TV. I stopped crying for Callie when I got her back in a Comfort Pet.
a year. a year this grown woman has been cuddling the synthetic-material-encased ashes of her pet. and you thought your pup's habit of gnawing on the legs of the kitchen table was evidence of profound separation anxiety. way to enable, joelle's mom. don't encourage her to take up watercolors or volunteer at a shelter or anything healthy like that, it's really best to give her a foolproof way to evade reality and scare off new friends. why heal, when there's comfort pet™?
oh, that's right: because you're NOT CRAZY.
Labels: puppy(/kitty) love, social commentary
posted by juniper pearl @ 6:26 PM
2 Comments:
At 12:36 AM,
Dina R. D'Alessandro said…
That's just downright nauseating.
At 11:10 PM,
juniper pearl said…
oh, tom, i'm so sorry. it's a terrible thing to have to go through. even when you know it's the best choice you could make for the sake of your pet, it's still a brutal ordeal. but 14 years is a great life for any dog, so while there's nothing that will keep you from feeling sad now, someday soon you'll be at least a little comforted by the thought that you helped make his time on this planet the best it could be.
i think it makes perfect sense to keep something; in fact, i'm always a little surprised when people don't. but it does strike me as a titch morbid to watch tv with a loved one's remains in your lap.
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