Aging loved ones struggling to care for themselves

[early morning]

I'm hoping they were small dogs? That said, I have the cremains of two cats sitting in the kitchen beside the register, because they so hated to be cold. (It's not obvious they are containers of cat dust, if it matters...) I just can't make myself put them outside. Isn't that stupid? All the other animals have been buried (when DH was better able to dig holes) or scattered, with no angst on my part. But these two - sometimes we put up metal blocks around the strangest stuff.

[Klunick]

I'm hoping they were small dogs? That said, I have the cremains of two cats sitting in the kitchen beside the register, because they so hated to be cold. (It's not obvious they are containers of cat dust, if it matters...) I just can't make myself put them outside. Isn't that stupid? All the other animals have been buried (when DH was better able to dig holes) or scattered, with no angst on my part. But these two - sometimes we put up metal blocks around the strangest stuff.

We have four ferrets and a cat buried in our backyard. When our Dalmatian died, our vet didn't offer cremation services and the hole we would have had to dig would have been massive so we just relinquished the body to the vet to dispose of. Our Alaskan Malamute and two cat's remains are sitting on a shelf of the TV stand in nice wooden boxes. I suppose we could bury the boxes but it doesn't bother us to have them inside the house. I imagine years from now, our two current cats will join the trio on the shelf.

[frugal-one]

Klunick … You obviously don’t live close so it might be time to hire someone to check in on your mom and possibly do her laundry? Sad that she is so isolated…. a few months with no one in her house.

[iris lilies]

my mom kept her cat’s corpse in the freezer for a while until the Iowa winter ground thawed. My mom had dementia later in life, but honestly, this was before dementia set in. And me, I didn’t think it was crazy.

I guess we are just crazy cat ladies.

[Klunick]

Klunick … You obviously don’t live close so it might be time to hire someone to check in on your mom and possibly do her laundry? Sad that she is so isolated…. a few months with no one in her house.

My sister stops by every other Sunday and also takes her to doctor appointments. Her house is in such disarray after so many years of having unpotty trained pets pooping and peeing all over her house. This is while she was still working so probably 20 years ago. My sister will clean as best she can and do a couple loads of laundry but the house smells so bad that she doesn't want to be there too long. Mom won't let a stranger in the house because she is embarrassed by the way it looks.

[rosarugosa]

I'm hoping they were small dogs? That said, I have the cremains of two cats sitting in the kitchen beside the register, because they so hated to be cold. (It's not obvious they are containers of cat dust, if it matters...) I just can't make myself put them outside. Isn't that stupid? All the other animals have been buried (when DH was better able to dig holes) or scattered, with no angst on my part. But these two - sometimes we put up metal blocks around the strangest stuff.

We have ashes of 5 cats buried here and there in the garden, as well as 2 of my sister's cats, but Oggie's little urn is in the living room. He's the one we couldn't quite bear to put in the ground.