Last Goodbye - Making a Pet Memorial

The day you know will come - but you can't prepare for it in any matter.

After hopefully many years you have to say goodbye to your beloved pet, family member, best friend :(

For me it is unbelievable sad and I cannot write this unaffected.

In the last 2 years I had to take farewell to my dog "Saruman" - 12,5 years my best companion

and around new year, to the queen of this house "Lillan" - she ruled us 13 years, but her age was unknown, at least 15.

If you're one of these persons like " come on, it's just a pet" - this instructable isn't for you.

I truly loved them and had a hard time when they were gone.

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For me it is important to have a spot in my garden, where I can put my best friends to a respectful rest.

this instructable is about making a pet grave into a memorial.

I guess Saruman and Lillan did not belong to any human religion - so this memorials are made with materials from their surroundning and their personal preferences :)

I hope you will find this useful one day and can see it as a form of your grief work - it helped me a lot.

PS: I would love to see something similar on my grave, made by someone who loved me - instead of a fancy, bought gravestone...

all materials I used are degradable:

for the basket:

some unstained wooden board - pallet wood works fine

nails

willow rods ( fresh or dried and soaked )

filling of the basket:

soil

moss

pine cones

whatever you find in your surrounding, or things you collect where you used to walk with your pet...

Tools needed:

pencil

cordless drill with a 10mm (0,4") wood drill bit

a circular object with desired diameter of the basket, as template - I used a plastic lid with 36cm (14")

hammer

saw

secateurs

cut the boards slightly longer than the diameter of the planned basket

f.ex.: the plastic lid i used as template was 36cm (14"), so I cut the boards about 44cm (17")

continue until you have enough boards to cover the template

cut 2 more pieces and lay them across the previously cut boards

use them to join the boards with nails.

The pictures will help you along if you're having trouble with the description.

with the wooden base done,

trace your template on it with a pencil.

Now divide the circle into 16 equal parts, and mark them -

I first drew two lines through the middle - one vertically and one horizontally - you'll end up with 4 equal parts,

divide each part in half - 8 parts, and one more time each part in half - 16 parts.

it is ok to eyeball the parts, this is not rocket sience.

drill a 10mm (0,4") hole in every mark you previously made

For this project you don't need fresh cut willow rods, alternately buy dried rods and soak them at least 24 hours before use.

For harvesting:

Willow trees are many different species under the "salix" (latin ) family, they are pretty much all suitable for this project. - If you can bend it, it will do the trick!
finding willow here in Sweden is very easy, I don't know about other countries - you may have to ask around - you may buy it from a landscaping gardener. In some countries it's not allowed to harvest willow in early spring, because insects depend on the catkins in bloom, so be sure to check that before harvesting.

I harvested wild willow nearby my house.

you'll need at least 8 rods around 8mm (0,3") thick ( take some more, in case it breaks)

and a big bunch of longer, 3 to 4mm (0,12" to 0,15") thick rods

I wanted the basket about 17cm high (6,7 ")

so I cut the 8 thicker rods in pieces with a length of 40cm (15,7")

carefully bend the pieces to a round shape and push them into two holes - like a small portal

If it breaks try another piece

continue until you have 8 "portals" in the same height.

take 3 or 4 thin rods at the time and weave them into the "portals" - under and over

- it's easier to weave with the thicker ends of the rods!

push the rows down from time to time.

continue until you have a height from about 13cm (5,11")

your basket is very sturdy by now and we're ready to continue.

due we had to bury Lillan during winter, the grave wasn't nice at all :(

remove the soil for about 5 cms (2") and rake it even with a shovel

place the basket directly onto the soil

cover the wooden base and fill the basket with 3cm soil

I decided to cut a heart of the moss we removed when digging the grave.

I collected pine cones in our garden.

also Lillan enjoyed brown, dry leaves, so I gathered a bucket of that as well :)

now I feel that the queen would be satisfied...

and so am I

RIP Lillan

the basket shown is by now almost 2 years old, but is still looking good.

I filled it with pine cones, that I collected in our garden and on spots that I visited during my long walks with him.

also I harvested a big bunch of white moss with soil - from a spot we visited only days before he was gone :(

some seashells from good memories...

RIP Saruman

This was the hardest instructable i ever wrote, but I'm glad I did it - maybe it can help you someday.

to honor my furry friends - Saruman, Lillan and also Azrael, who disappeared...

~I hope you enjoyed your stay~
sincerely, Mimikry