Hey....
I usually don't post stuff like this. But I am wondering if anyone has ever made a Memorial Garden before?
Specifically, for a beloved pet?
My wonderful little Jack Russell who we adopted from the Humane Society in 2008, after she was picked up as a stray, passed away last Saturday Feb. 6. It has been a horribly difficult week for me, and I am still not over it. Still bursting into tears at times during the day.
I have decided that the best way to try and work though my grief at the loss of this very special life-long (for her, anyway) friend is to channel my energy into making something beautiful for her that will burgeon with the coming of Spring.
I have made a small start...I have gotten a dwarf Gardenia bush called 'Buttons' that can be grown in a container, (because we have 2 very large old Gardenias in the back that she used to love to stop and smell when they were in bloom). I bought a nice heavy glazed pot for it, in ocean colors, because she loved the beach. I have planted a few annuals so far...red Dianthus, 2 colors of Sweet Alyssum, a pretty bicolor viola, and a Yellow Gallardia, a white snapdragon... I want to get more flowers.

The idea is to change out the flowers with each season so that there is always something fresh and pretty.

I have ordered the frame of a bottle tree, to place back farther in the shade and use as a wish/memory/prayer tree. They have made these on Anna Marie Island, where we used to go together, using windblown salt tolerant shrubby plants on the dune line and hanging shells from them with wishes and names and dates written
inside.

I also would like to get a small sun catcher or a wind chime to hang here.

There is also a bench, its an inlaid mosaic alligator that we have had for many years, that offers a place to sit. She used to like to lay in the sun by it when I was sitting on the bench.

If you have ever made a garden like I am thinking about, please share your ideas and photographs.

This is my special girl, gone to the Summerland to wait for me. Her name is Kooks

Gina, I don't have pet memorial photos to show you, but I wanted to express my sympathy for the loss of your companion Kooks. It sounds like your memorial plans will keep her memory alive for years to come.
I've felt what seemed like unbearable grief over the deaths of beloved pets. They capture our hearts with immeasurable intensity. My thoughts are with you.

Oh, she was so cute!

She reminds me of our fur baby with those ears.

I made a memorial garden for my hamsters. I am sure that when we have to say goodbye to our fur baby, I will put something special in the garden for her.

It is still a work in progress and this isn't what it looks like today (the coral bells are gone and have been replaced with ferns or hostas). I will take an updated picture for you once everyone has come up this year.


It is difficult to see, but I have two small concrete hamster statues in the garden along with an angel that says "With You Always" on her stomach, a small heart with wings that says, "A piece of my heart has wings," and a small handmade (my Mom made it for me) stone that spells out "Nippy" (she was the first one to pass). I also have a stepping stone (not pictured) that I bought after Nippy passed. I tried to make my own, but I'm not very crafty.

That is so very sweet! I am going to look for a concrete gopher tortoise figure to put there...her favorite thing in all the world was to make a walk down to the nature preserve next door and 'check on' all the gopher tortoise burrows out there.

Gina1960 said:That is so very sweet! I am going to look for a concrete gopher tortoise figure to put there...her favorite thing in all the world was to make a walk down to the nature preserve next door and 'check on' all the gopher tortoise burrows out there.

I don't know if this is a gopher tortoise, but I saw this at Lowes the other day:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/9-in-...

Yes it definitely IS!!!!!!

Just wanted to say how sorry I am for your loss.

Gina1960 said:Yes it definitely IS!!!!!!

I hope your Lowes has some in stock.

sorry for your loss , animals own such a part of our heart it is hard when they pass on.

I am able to bury my animal companions on our land so the grave sites get wild flowers
the horses and goats, dogs and cats and even our chinchilla are all in the large front pasture.

My sister lives in a place this is not possible so she buries a small box with a keepsake like a collar or favorite toy and plants a flowering shrub. Under the shrub a small hand painted stone with the pets name.

What wonderful memorial gardens everyone has designed for their loving pets. Each area will be a sweet memory when caring for the gardens .
I have had to put down my beloved horse and called the back hoe. A wonderful neighbor who has a plumbing business and never thought he'd be in the animal burial business. I watched him carry my beloved horse of 30 years to a spot prepared near his favorite apple tree. And so on with various other beloved animals over the years have been added to their special places in the gardens.
It's amazing how each one leaves a special place in our hearts full of happy memories.

Gina, I'm so sorry about your little Kooks. It is so very hard losing one's furbaby. Sending you a big hug!

I appreciate everyone sharing so very much. We could bury animals here, we live on 5 acres of woods, no HOA and no deed restrictions. But, its a very wild natural area. There would be predation for larger animals who would be able to scent out the graves. Since we moved here, we have had all of our pets cremated. There is a local mortuary who will do this, inexpensively, for people who with to have the ashes of their pets. Kooks will be back home next week, I have a small area indoors arranged for all our past pets in a book case where their favorite things are stores with their ash boxes. My husband and daughter know that if I pass away, the boxes are to be placed in my coffin and interred with me.

Yesterday I found a lovely small birdbath that hangs from a tree branch in colors of green and blue, like the ocean. And I also found a Bottle Tree frame, which we are going to use as a Memory Tree. Attaching shells and prayer flags, feathers and special things. Kooks used to love to chase a pine cone if you kicked it down the road...and she was an avid beach comber with her ma. It looks like we may have one more cold snap next weekend, then I will begin filling the space with flowers.

Gina my family knows the same thing. They are all to be with me.

I am very sorry for your loss.

Today was my first Valentines day in 10 years without my little Romeo.

I put him down last March and it honestly has gotten harder and harder. Some days it's just the pits and I can hardly make it through.

I bought these little stones on Etsy , they are real rocks engraved with their names, they are about 5 inches across.I brought them in for the winter.

Foo was my daughters poodle and she was put down less than 2 months later, she really went down hill after Romeo was gone, she had diabetes and she went blind.

It's not a 'garden' yet, but it will be after we get new siding on our house

Thank you everyone. I know I am not the only one who has been through this or is going through this. @Frillylilly, I am experiencing this now. We have another dog, a rescue named Monty (He was Monty Carlo when we got him but we renamed him Monty Python). We got him a little less than a year before we got Kooks and they were roughly the same age so they grew up together in the house. Monty was used to doing everything with Kooks. Walks. Mealtimes. Watching TV. Sleep time. Now he is lost. He has had problems with mast cell tumors, we have had to have one large one resected off of his chest wall. now he has another in his throat that will need attention. He is at least 15, creaky joints, pretty much deaf, his eyesight is less than perfect. Now he wanders around the house looking for Kooks. Despite their size difference, she was his alpha and he seems to have no idea what to do. He looks for her in all the little spots she used to hang out and sleep. Its very sad. What is worse though is that I have never really had the same CONNECTION with Monty that I had work Kooks. I do love him, but its not the same. I can't just transfer my love to him. He was severely abused before we got him and has always been a little standoffish. He knows we love him, and he loves us. But somewhere on some very deep level, he still doesn't trust us implicitly not to hurt him. I am certainly glad he is here. But its just not the same.

It rained like hell last night and rainwater filled my little bird bath. I hope the birds find it.

Just sit on your couch with little Monty and hug him, because he too will be gone before you know it. I know exactly what you mean in describing that, Foo was my daughters dog and I never had the attachment to her as I did Romeo. But she was just a different type of dog, you had to earn kisses she didn't just give those away But Romeo freely kissed anyone who would hold still long enough. Foo was not the attachment type I guess. Every week when the trash man came Foo would get up in the window and bark fiercely, informing me quite matter of factly that 'that' man is stealing our trash again! Of course little Romeo would join right in w the fierce defense but then he'd look at me like, why are we doing this?? :doh:
I do miss them both, I just don't want another dog right now, I'm not ready. Maybe someday, maybe not.

I remember when Flop my male Shar Pei passed at the animal hosp. the 2 girls searched for him every time you put their food down running from room to room looking in closets , under beds. This went on for quite some time. And when Mable the mother passed I had to either hand feed Molly or be with her or she would not eat. I would say Molly was my special one , born in my room and slept on my leg for almost 14 years. If she was not touching me she woke right up. She had to be in whatever room I was in or would knock on the door. What used to get to everyone was no matter what time I got home she would about 5 min. before I arrived be on the back of the couch looking out the window for me

Mabel Molly Flop
After she passed it took a few years till I was able to get another and got very lucky with Mopps.

Oh Bob I understand this so completely. That is what makes this so hard. Kooks was the ONLY dog of the 3 we had (I don't count my kid's dogs as 'mine') who was JUST for me. She always followed me from room to room so we had a little pillow or she had a special place she would sleep when I was in this room or that. Or she would be glued to my leg on the couch. My husband used to tell me that when I left out of the back door, she would lay on the couch we have in our sunporch and just watch out the back door until she saw me coming back. When everyone else was at work or out and I came home from the store she was ALWAYS there at the door to meet me. Over the years, when she was a younger dog, she would jump vertically 4-5 ft up and down like a yoyo at whatever door I was coming in as a greeting. When she got older it was the ballerina dance, up on her hind legs and just jumping around, then finally just waggling and smiling. I have not been able to remove all her little pillows and blankies from the various rooms, and I don't think I will. I want her spirit to feel welcomed if she comes back.
We got her ashes back from the pet funeral home yesterday in a lovely carved rosewood box. So in a way I feel like she has come back.

I have a Memory Garden. Since moving here in 1996 all my fur babies have been buried there...5 Greyhounds, 2 Rhodesian Ridgebacks, 2 Lab mixes and a Catahoula mix. When Dixie goes to Rainbow Bridge she will join them. I outlined the graves with half high cinder blocks that I plant each year. There is also an azalea and butterfly bush and camellia as well as blue curles and St. Andrew's Cross which are both native wildflowers....several birdfeeders and birdbaths as well as a windchime and bench. I love sitting there at beer thirty enjoying the birds, squirrels and bunnies. Oh and on line I found a plaque of the Rainbow Bridge poem.