A Little Levity

A selection of figurines for decoration or to commemorate your cat, just a little different from the usual.

I spent the afternoon with Deb Chebatoris from Chartiers Custom Pet Cremation, photographing new urns and commemorative items and preparing a website update.

Deb truly has an extensive selection of urns from the recognizable marble cask and ceramic ginger jar styles to cloisonne, Kasmiri and composite vessels of all sorts and sculptures of cats and dogs of all styles and breeds. Photographing them is a pleasure.

Sometimes she finds vessels that are a little different, though, and these three figurines are definitely not something you’d expect as an urn. They aren’t large enough to hold all the cremains from nearly any animal, just a small amount as some people prefer to scatter and just keep a small amount near, or family members share the cremains of a pet they all loved. They may also simply be used as a decorative item to hold small objects like jewelry.

And a remembrance doesn’t need to be solemn and somber, especially if the one you’re remembering was silly. The white cat with its leg in the air reminds me of Namir. What really got me was what was carved inside the bottom of each of the urns: three birds, Sylvester, and a mouse, presumably a dead one since we see the bottoms of its feet.

I really liked the way the artist designed the figures, a little exaggerated here and there, but definitely feline characters.

We’ll be getting the rest of the urns and other commemorative items up in the next week or two, and that will include some lovely designs and other figured cachepots that I would enjoy looking at in my feline figure collection; you can check the Chartiers Custom Pet Cremation website now to see what’s there.