I promised I would have some courage and ask my mom what she did with the body of our deceased cat as it's winter and the soil is frozen... well, my mother is visiting now, so I finally asked and she answered, a little shy and guilty: "I put it in the garbage!" As the soil was frozen and she didn't want to have a body wait in her yard, unfreezing and refreezing over time, and as the river was also frozen, the garbage (huge bins) was the only place she could put the dead cat.
Interestingly however, my mom made sure to 'bury' the cat in the box she always slept in, with her blankets... My mother also made sure she didn't cover the body with other, more recent, trash bags, as a sign of respect for our cat. She just hopes the weather will stay cool until the trash truck comes, so that the body can remain frozen and undamaged.
I find this story interesting on many levels. The cat is, in the end, only a cat but is 'buried' with some 'grave goods'. The facts that the place of burial is a garbage bin and that the grave goods are in fact simply blankets and a cardboard box are very important. One archaeologist finding a cat's skeleton in a city's garbage might think that this cat was not well respected or loved. If this same archaeologist would find the box and the blankets (which aren't of a very rich fabric or making), he/she might find this to be a confirmation of the fact that this cat was not 'that' important... but that person would be far off the truth. Our cat was well loved and taken care of and this choice of burial is only the consequence of a lack of other possibilities. I'll try to keep that in mind next time I look at a weird, and seemingly non precious, burial!
