When we lost our beloved German Shepherd, Tia, our world fell apart. We knew she was old but did not expect to lose her so suddenly and in such traumatic circumstances. We had to use an emergency vet out of our area, so when Tia passed away there we did not know where to turn. It was a friend of mine who works at a vet practice who recommended Dignity to me.
From the moment I called Dignity, I knew I had made the right decision. The lady I first spoke to was Sarah. I could not even speak properly. She told me to take my time, and that she was still there, listening in between me crying. It was like she was sent by Tia to comfort me. I naively didn’t even know what to do when an animal dies, having not owned one previously. Sarah said very calmly and patiently “Would you like us to collect Tia for you and bring her back to our care, until you have made your wishes?” Again, I was so upset and naive that I hadn’t even investigated what our wishes were but just said yes please and thanked her. She told me she just needed to see if there was a driver in the area and would ring me back. She did, as promised, and as if by fate there was a driver literally in Ringwood where we live! I told her that I wanted Tia to be wrapped in her blanket but because she was at an emergency vet, we hadn’t expected to lose her there. She said she would ask the driver to wait for me so that I could drive to the vet and drop the blanket off. She said that Tia would be wrapped in the blanket and put in her own bed, in the pet hearse and someone would call me when she arrived at Dignity. True to her word, we had the call, and we were told that Tia would be looked after until we confirmed what our wishes were.
As a family, we then had to decide what we were going to do. I looked at the website and liked looking at the brochure, however… it was the next person that I spoke to at Dignity who helped me to make absolutely the right decision of how to say goodbye to Tia, and that lady was Emma. Another Angel.
My son is in the army, and when we had to ring him to tell him of Tia’s passing, he couldn’t really process it. He was only a little boy when we got her as a puppy, so they had been really close and he asked if he could see Tia as he was down the road at a base in Swindon. Again, I had no idea. I knew you could see deceased humans before their cremation/burial but I didn’t know whether it was possible with animals. So, I rang and spoke to Emma and she said of course he could. But we decided there and then at that moment that we were all going to say goodbye together and it was arranged at very short notice by Emma, to do a private attended cremation. Emma made the whole process personal by taking a clipping of Tia’s fur for us to put in the keepsake heart with some of her ashes, which I have by my bed. I chose the key ring which, again, Emma personalised for me with a pink ribbon and only she will remember the significance of but again, it was as if my dog Tia spoke to me! The ashes are yet to be scattered and we chose two woodland scatter tubes as she was a big dog! One for her favourite beach and the other in the garden.
Finally, on the day of the service we were met by Emma and Will. It was a very emotional day but it couldn’t have been more dignified. They both were there, and Will again is a credit to the company. He told us he realised how special Tia was to us when he saw the photograph of our tiny boys and our puppy, and now he was cremating our old Tia with grown men. We were able to say our goodbyes as we had wanted to do.
While we were waiting for Tia’s ashes, we went to a garden centre nearby that Emma had recommended and had a nice brunch. How you can spend 3.5 hours in a garden centre, heaven knows, but we managed to!
We had time to reflect on the service and we all agreed how lovely it had been, apart from seeing Tia go into the kiln. We all closed our eyes and bowed our heads at this point and I probably wouldn’t recommend it for little children either as it’s too upsetting but we were given the option of whether we wanted to witness it or not. Will said a prayer as Tia was placed into the kiln though which was lovely.