Tony Almighty

This is a story that happened to me and my good friend a few years ago. It all started with her gorgeous, BIG cat named Tony. Tony looked like he had a good deal of Siamese in him. He was a very tall and good looking feline. Tony lived the good life for a long time and then finally died of old age. My girlfriend's family of four adult children had known Tony growing up and she wanted them to be present at the cat's funeral. So, until she could get them all together for the interment, Tony resided in a cardboard box in the big chest freezer in the basement.

Every so often I would ask, "Have you buried Tony yet?" and the answer was always, "No, not yet". This went on for quite some time. It was finally determined that Tony had been in the freezer for TWO years! Well, it's one thing to have a pet in the freezer until the spring thaw, but two years I thought was a little excessive!

I cornered my friend and suggested that it was time for Tony's body to be released. She readily agreed. Her kids were all over the country and it seemed impossible to find a time that would be suitable for everyone. So we set a time and a date when I would come over and help her to bury Tony.

On the appointed day, I showed up at her door, shovel in hand. She wasn't home. "Where is she?" I asked her husband. "Over at Jackie's" he replied. "Give me Jackie's number!" I ordered. I got her on the phone... "I have the cat. If you want to know where I'm burying him you had better get over here!" She pulled into the driveway moments later.

Digging was very difficult. The ground was hard and rocky. I pounded away until I had a substantial hole. Okay; now it was time to get Tony out of the freezer. I saw the box he was in and told my friend that the digging was so hard I didn't want to dig a bigger hole, so he had to come out of the box to bury him. He was perfect. He looked like he was sleeping. I joked that she could have sold him at the recent church sale as a cushion and no one would have known the difference. He smelled like strawberries. I wondered if any food in her freezer had picked up the flavour of cat. Into the hole he went.

As we stood there and said goodbye to Tony, we each threw a handful of dirt on the grave. All of a sudden there was a weird howling sound that shocked my friend and I and made the hair on the backs of our necks stand up and gave us goose bumps. Two cats had chosen that very time to yowl to each other... or was it to howl to Tony, the King of the Cats? My friend said, "They're singing him a hymn!" It was all very peculiar. We looked around but never saw the cats that made the loud howling.

And that is the story of Tony Almighty!

~Hot Diggity Dawg~ by: el Presidente

This is a true story about my good buddy, Bub the dog. Bub lived with me for sixteen years. He loved me and my family but didn't get along too well with other people and especially other dogs. He was a huge part of my life and I loved him and I miss him still.

When Bub died, he died at my parent's cottage, so that is where I buried him. It was a difficult weekend; due to the heat I lost not only him but three pet rats. But that is another story. Over the years there was a little garden that my Mom planted on his grave, known as 'Bub's Garden'. As time passed, the landscape was more or less left to nature.

Years later, my parents gave the cottage to my brother Richard and me and ultimately Richard bought my share from me. One day he disclosed a plan to tear down the old cottage and build a new one. What, if anything, did I want to do about Bub's remains in the back garden?

In no time at all I decided that the only thing I could do was go and get Bub. My daughter wouldn't let me do it by myself... she definitely wanted to attend.

The prospects of finding the actual grave looked pretty bleak. Nothing looked the same any more - it was about fifteen years since he had died. I put myself back into the past and tried my best to landmark the site. I started to dig. In a couple of shovel-fulls of sand, I had Bub's skull looking up at me. I recognized his toothy grin right away.

My daughter and I were ecstatic. Here now was all that was left of Bub - his bones. We carefully rounded up his earthly remains and put them into a green garbage bag and then into a cardboard box. Bub was part pit bull and part collie and he would have been a medium sized dog in life. There wasn't much left of him now!

I took the box home and put it in my office and there it stayed for quite some time. I didn't know what to do with it and I wanted to explore my options. I thought about cremating his remains, reburying his remains and reconstructing his remains. Em did have one good idea I considered and that was to have a 'reliquary', with a curtain that opens up and a light that goes on. I don't think I'll ever talk my husband into that one... ever. But I felt oddly at peace with him right where he was. So... much to my husband's consternation... I still have Bub in the house. I don't want him to know exactly where because he does make noise like he wants to oust Bub once and for all. All I can tell you is, 'he has my back'.