Enduring Pet Loss: Make a Custom Urn

Urn by Chris Parow

You can see that this urn is 1.) different and 2.) flat-out gorgeous. It was made for a beloved pet dog, but to my mind, it could work for almost anybody. Made of walnut and gathered drift wood by artist/woodworker Christopher Parow, it now houses the cremated remains of Buckley, a close friend's Boxer-mix who quite sadly had a fatal heart attack this past Thanksgiving at the age of three. It was only last summer that Buckley had enthusiastically helped to collect this driftwood on a beach in Maine as Parow and Buckley's owner Emerson (Em) walked alongside him. Parow writes, "I spent most of my time trying to make the drift wood actually hug and embrace Buckley's new home...After several hours of working everything together just right, it was complete. It now represented some of the most precious memories of Em and Buckley's time together.

"Death is never easy," Parow goes on to say, "With this piece, I aimed to create a truly positive resting place, a comfy nest, where [Buckley] can have little barky doggy dreams of scouring the beach for drift wood. RIP Buckley."You can find more of Parow's amazing woodwork and wood sculptures on his website Trees and Nails.

Buckley on the beach