Letter from the Editor: March 2020

For many of us, our pets are more than pets—they’re family. That’s the case with our animals and it was important to us to continue to honor their memory.

This month’s topic has a bit of a sad undertone, but don’t worry, there’s a silver lining. In early February, we lost our cat of 14 years, Lily. I adopted her and her sister when they were about four weeks old. They were brought into a vet clinic where I worked because they were strays and had horrible respiratory infections. Lily and her sister, Bella, were so small—weighing just under a pound each. I spent weeks bottle feeding them and treating their respiratory infections. Eventually, they both recovered and became fat, happy house cats. Lily always suffered from respiratory issues, but we managed. Then almost two years ago, she fell ill with some kidney issues. We initially thought she was going into renal failure, but after two days of hospitalization, she pulled through with no lingering issues. We thought we were out of the woods. However, in November 2019, she got sick again—this time with a bad ear infection and a cold. We treated her for a few weeks with antibiotics of various kinds. By the end of December, it seemed to be cleared up. Unfortunately, last month, she took a turn for the worse and ended up passing away. We had hope for a short period of time that it was just a fluke infection, but her body was too tired and she stopped fighting. It broke my heart to lose her, but I know she’s in a better place now.

The options for what to do after you pet passes away are somewhat limited and can vary by state. After 14 years, cremation seemed like the only option. Which brings me to the main point of my article this month—keeping your beloved pet with you through polymer clay.

I did some research into this and found a couple of ways to use polymer clay to remember your companion. The first option is to purchase a small glass vial and decorate the outside with clay. In this case, you could create a decorative piece to display discretely in your home or embellish the vial with elements that remind you of your pet. Once baked, the ashes can be placed inside and displayed wherever you like. I found an article explaining this idea that was created as a necklace. 

Another option is to incorporate some of your pet’s ashes directly into the clay and then create the art piece of your choosing. It could be a pendant for a necklace, center piece for a bracelet, or sculpture to sit on a shelf.

Regardless of which option you choose, your pet will always be with you!

If you’ve tried one of these techniques, we’d love to see how they turned out and to learn more about the process. Share with us here or on Facebook.