Piccolina Vincenzolinni 2009 – 2020 RIP

Before I met Aubree, there were many things I thought I’d never do. Like get married again. Have children again.

Or say, have a lizard as a pet.

But my wife had this bearded dragon when I met her. I always thought reptiles as pets were a little less than warm and fuzzy because you know, they’re not warm and not fuzzy. She loved this crazy lizard and I certainly had to respect that. So I welcomed my new cold-blooded roommate 6 years ago.

Well she must have grown on me. She died this weekend. And at first I thought how the ground was probably frozen solid with the temperatures and you can’t flush one down a toilet as you might with a fish, so I briefly thought we should just wrap her up and put her in the trash.

That thought lasted two seconds and immediately I was horrified. No way could I do that. I found I wanted to give her the same respect I gave other pets like the cat I had as a boy or the guinea pigs my older children had.

So outside I went just to see how tough the ground would be in the woods behind our house. Turns out it wasn’t nearly as frozen as I anticipated. I made a grave and found a small box and gave the old girl a somewhat proper send off.

I say somewhat proper because some people go all out. Pet cemeteries and even funeral parlors for pets have become a thing. Believe it or not 15% of funeral parlors have offered services for pets due to demand. Then there are places that deal only in pet services. Think Forever Remembered in Jackson, Hamilton Pet Meadow In Hamilton, Faithul Companion in Clifton and the like.

I don’t think there’s any right or wrong answer to what you do with a pet when they die. It’s each person’s call. But we’re wondering how people handled it? Take our poll below.

More from New Jersey 101.5