When I took Blazer for his last to the vet the woman who was filling out the paperwork asked me what sort of container we wanted for the ashes.
I told her we were going to bury the puppy beside the pond, next to Pepper and Brinks, so the plain red plastic box would be fine.
We stopped Monday night to collect him, and because of Covid, we weren’t allowed inside the building. The tech first asked me to read off the numbers from the charge card, and then said she’d come out and get it “because it’s impossible to read those numbers in the dark.”
When she came back out with the card, the receipt and a heavy gift bag I glanced quickly at the paperwork and nearly dropped the bag – and my teeth. Slightly over $300! Well, when we lost Brinks, the cremation alone was $100, and that was back in ’99, so I guess it made sense – and there wasn’t anything to do about it at any rate. Brinks died a natural death, and there surely was a charge for the Doggy Demerol and meds to help Blazer cross the Rainbow Bridge.
Tuesday morning I lifted the box out of the bag and gasped! I have the distinct feeling a large part of that three hundred bucks was the cost of the casket, and we certainly aren’t going to bury this beside the pond! The question, of course, is what are we going to do with it?
thisendoftheswamp 
Sorry your loss of Blazer. Blazer is housed in a lovely casket. Too nice to be buried indeed. If it is not too morbid, it sits as a decorative item in the home?
I’m so sorry about Blazer. I keep my fur babies’ boxes on the bookshelf.
Unless you really want the wooden box that you didn’t request, return it and ask for the red plastic box you expected, and a refund on your credit card.
The box sort of “grew on me”. We had Blazer longer than any of our other dogs, so we decided to just keep it. Right now, it is sitting on the hearth.