We have always placed a stone on the grave. When we moved we gathered up all the stones and now they sit on our deck. We just had a fish "funeral" the other day. We don't actually have a ceremony, more of just a burial. My kids learned a valuable lesson the hard way with dd's rooster. It's been a couple years ago now. They were chasing it around the yard--I didn't realize that is what they were doing until I heard them giggling like you wouldn't believe. I looked out the window just in time to see the rooster fly around the corner of the house with both kids not far behind. I ran to cut them off at the back door and holler at them about teasing an animal (which they had NEVER done prior to this, in fact I don't think they thought of it as teasing at the time). As I was opening the door I heard both kids give a blood curdling scream! I opened the door to find Elsa, our retriever mix, with the rooster in her mouth. The kids had chased the rooster right into the dogs' pen. They were screaming at the top of their lungs and crying so hard. I got the rooster and brought him in. We wrapped him up and put him under a heat lamp...he was in shock. He passed away after about 10 minutes in dd's arms. She cried and cried. After the scene had calmed down a bit, I got out the Word and we read: Proverbs 12:10 ΒΆ A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Tough lesson, but they have never since teased any animal that I know of. They are both extra sensitive regarding their pets.
