Saying goodbye to a pet is never easy. Some pet owners choose to bury their animals or cremate them, but for Athereal Rose, she couldn’t fathom burying her cat, her best friend of 21 years, her family, her “soul pet,” into the ground. Then, she saw a TikTok with a different option: Freeze-drying.
Rose had her cat, Mystic, for 21 years. Mystic was with her when she moved, when her business failed, when she tried out van life. So when the cat was suffering from mouth cancer, the goodbye was brutal. After several surgeries, the cancer spread down Mystic’s throat, where she couldn’t even swallow fluids, Rose said.
“It was just a time of incredible loss, and so I knew that I wasn’t about to put my best friend in the ground,” said Rose.
When Rose finally said goodbye, she wasn’t sure where to put her. Rose lived in an apartment complex in Florida, and she couldn’t bury her cat nearby. She also moved around and wanted to be able to visit her cat.
“It was the middle of the night and I’m trying to find a spot to bury my cat, and I was like, ‘Actually, that feels unsettling to me.’ To see someone every single day for 21 years and then to never see them again. It just didn’t even sound logical to me,” Rose said.
Rose said she looked on TikTok to see if other people had done taxidermy or freeze-drying, and she found that she wasn’t the only one thinking of it.
Owners turning to freeze-drying their pets
For Karuna Satori, it was a similar story. Satori had her cat, Munchkin, for 11 years. She was broke and wasn’t looking for a pet, but when she saw Munchkin in a pet store and the shopkeeper said they’d trade her broken laptop for the cat, she was walking home with Munchkin.
Munchkin was her “soul pet,” and when it came to saying goodbye, she already knew what she was going to do. While Satori said it’s a “taboo” idea, it’s more common than you might think. Satori was doomscrolling one night when she saw a TikTok about freeze-drying, a process that preserves the body of the pet, rather than taxidermy, where only the fur and features are preserved.
So, when Munchkin was found with a tumor in his nose, he was euthanized almost immediately. Satori said after he passed, she put him on ice and drove her cat to Animal Family Pet Preservation. Rose chose the same company, except she shipped her cat. When the box arrived 6 months later, Rose said she was so excited to have Mystic back, however, it wasn’t quite what she expected.
Rose said the company was compassionate and did an amazing job. Rose’s cat lost half her weight, and the company restored her to a healthy weight. Rose put Mystic in a plexiglass case, and for the next few days, Rose said it was a bit of a shock to wake up in the middle of the night and see her on the shelf. However, she was grateful she did it.
“I am so used to having a slinky cat where I would get home from work and put her in my arms and kiss her all over her face … she was very long and slinky, and for the first time ever I held her and she was a statue,” said Rose. “In one way, I have her back, but I have back a different version of her.”
“It was just so helpful to have her back because that really was my longest friendship that I’ve had in my life,” said Rose.
Satori had a similar experience: She watched several TikToks of people unboxing their pets, and she was so excited to get Munchkin back, but it wasn’t what she expected at first.
“I wasn’t necessarily very happy at first. I actually was a little bit horrified, because even the pose that I chose and things like that, I guess in my mind, I was expecting something different, like maybe him being soft or him being himself, maybe that was just like a mental thing for myself, but it didn’t really help at first,” Satori recalled.
However, after settling in with Munchkin and holding him, Satori is so happy she decided to freeze-dry Munchkin.
“After getting settled, sitting with him a bit, holding him and things like that, I think, genuinely, with all of my heart, I am so grateful, I think it has definitely helped my grief and compared to whether or not I had or if I didn’t chose that option, I think I’d be much happier with him,” Satori said.
Munchkin now sits on a cabinet surrounded by his toys and photos of him. Ultimately, Satori doesn’t regret her decision, but since she genuinely believes Munchkin was her soul pet, it’s definitely the only pet she’s planning to freeze-dry.
As for Mystic, Rose moved, and with her so did Mystic. Rose is now in southeast Asia, but after picturing what customs would say, Mystic stayed back with her mother-in-law. While Rose said she’ll never love an animal as much as Mystic, she said she would possibly consider freeze-drying another pet again.
Backlash for grieving on TikTok
Both Rose and Satori have been vocal online about their experiences, which have received positive and negative reactions.
“I kind of get how it must look a little spooky, kooky from the outside, but then again, it’s like, okay, let me watch you put your 21-year friendship in the dirt,” Rose said.
Satori said some people in the comments were “vicious,” but to her, it doesn’t matter.
“I believe as anybody in life, if you were blessed with a soul pet, if you have a pet that just resonates with you, and is unlike anything that you’ve ever come across in life … that one special animal that you would do anything for and do anything to keep, maybe freeze drying isn’t such a taboo subject when it means keeping your loved one with you,” said Satori.
When it comes to the decision of freeze-drying your pet, Rose said it doesn’t matter what people think.
“Make your own choices. Do what’s right for you. Do what feels right in your heart because at the end of the day, they’re not in that relationship with you. They didn’t know your relationship with your pet,” said Rose.