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How Do You Remember Them? Stone Memorials Etc

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Goth Mummy

Goth Mummy

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Mods: If you don't think this post is in the right place, please move. I wasn't sure if it should be in Rainbow Bridge?
Since losing my beautiful and much loved Toffee and Ripple just before Christmas I have been looking for a suitable garden memorial. (They were also known as Buffy and Willow, as my daughter who was 2 when we adopted them from @guineabecs could not say Ripple, so she came up with “Willow” and therefore they acquired their nicknames ;)
Toffee is buried in the garden with a plant pot full of spring bulbs on top of her to make the spot. Because Ripple had cervical lymphadenitis the vet strongly advised against us bringing her home due to risk to the other pigs, and even took my carrier/blankets to be disposed of as clinical waste. It is a great sadness to me that I did not think straight at the time and forgot to ask for her ashes back. I have told the children a lie and said that her ashes are with Toffee though, so they think that they are together again.
However, my children are still really missing our special girls. My son (age 9) especially wants a memorial in the garden and it is upsetting him that we still not organised this. I am not sure that I want a pet grave stone as such, as we have a lot of animals, and although we have a big garden, it could quite easily start to look like a pet cemetery in a few years!
Their “spot” is in the herb garden, as they loved fresh herbs. I quite like the idea of two stone/garden ornament piggies nestling in mint and rosemary on their spot. So far I have only found the Vivid Arts small baby guinea pigs which I think are made of resin and I am not sure they are weatherproof.
Can anyone recommend any garden ornaments? Or any other ideas? Any links to examples? How do you remember yours?
Thanks everyone J
 
What a sweet idea! I do think that resin is weatherproof, at least in good weather. You may have to bring it in for the winter months. We did something similar for one of my hedgehogs. We had a little stone ornament of a hedgehog where she was buried. It didn't look like a gravestone per se, but it was a way of memorializing her.

We unfortunately just lost Linney, our 6-year-old girl, and have not been able to bury her yet (our yard is currently under a food of snow and the ground will not thaw for several months yet.) We had to put her in a box in our deep freeze, which is totally killing me, but I really didn't see another option. Had she been PTS I might have looked into cremation, but she passed at home and I just couldn't face driving her body to the vet and talking to the staff and arranging for cremation. It also would have cost a lot, as I really would have wanted her ashes returned and I know from past experience it is expensive to do it that way. In the spring we will do a memorial and burial for her. I do want some sort of marker... a pet store near us has little memorial plaques with nice saying that are weatherproof and lie flat and I think I will get one of those. Anything that stands upright I am afraid my hubby will go over with the lawnmower and destroy both the mower and the stone! Several of my pets are buried in the same general area so I think the stone will serve for all of them. I didn't put markers up for the past few pets I lost, but Linney was really special to me. I know it sounds bad to have favorites, but she was my favorite pet since my first hedgehog about 18 years ago so I am really feeling the loss and want to memorialize her somehow.
 
I have one of these in my garden
Like you a few of mine are hurried on my garden (past rabbits/rats) but a few pets like my cats and dog couldn't be hurried and were scatter elsewhere so we also have a garden cherrob and a bush in my garden we planted and the back flower bed has these in them.
You can always make a wooden cross marker or a wooden plaque with their names and lacquer it in wood protector and plant that somewhere special.
You could also have the children write/ draw some pictures and maybe burry them in. Special plant Pitt and plant a plant on top and burry the folded pictures and messages for the piggies with the plant (paper will degrade quickly- and put some kind of piggie figure by the plant) and when ever they want to think of the piggies they can go and sit by the "memorial plant". I did something similar for a friends child to help remember their bunny who couldn't be brought home as no garden. X
 
Silly link wont work on my phone. If you type stone memorials for guinea pigs on amazon you should find a few. X
 
Thank you for your suggestions @jenniferanneharris that is a nice idea.
A cherub/bird bath thing is also a nice idea, I guess it does not have to be a statue of a guinea pig exactly.

@Freela I'm so sorry that you lost Linney. I once had to have a guinea pig in my freezer too - she died whilst I was looking after her for a friend who was travelling and I didn't know what her wishes would be and couldn't contact her (days before mobile phones).
 
Have you thought about getting a big plain terracotta plant pot and painting it or writing the names of your past pets on it? Your children could join in then too and you can always keep adding to the design or names - they look really pretty too.
 
Hello- first of all, sorry :( . This is a photo of what I got done for my girl Esther, I was thinking of putting it in a shadow box. but it could also go in the garden, it is glazed clay.
estherpaw_zpsa838afe0.jpg
 
There are some great ideas here. I think that is a really good idea @Goth Mummy and it is so lovely the children want to be involved. I really like the plant pot idea too. Let us know what you decide :) xx
 
Thank you so much for your ideas! Those Angel piggies are particularly adorable (and the Angel kitty....)

I also love the impression of Esther's paw @archie_edith that is something that I am thinking of doing for all my pets (whilst they are still with us).

The plant pot is a brilliant idea. We have lots of terracotta pots and the children would love that, they would love to paint designs on them, thank you so much for that idea :)

Even my husband who normally professes not to take much notice of the piggies said that he was missing the Teddy Girls.

This forum is lovely ((hugs)) to all of you missing a four paw-d friend :(
 
We are still waiting for the weather to improve a bit so we can get a pot and azalea for Tangos ashes :( Though it's nice to know that once it's sorted he will be right next to Cash in the garden they loved to play in.
 
((Hugs))) to @Tbag Tango and Cash were lovely. Cash had the best hair. I hope you can get your plant pot soon.
 
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