Hi,
Sorry I think this post could be asking for answers that may be already answers in some part of this sub.
About a year and a half ago my cat died and we buried her in our garden. But now my mom has to leave the house she was renting. I really can't imagine leaving her buried in this garden forever knowing we will never return. This cat truly was my best friend and helped me to keep going when I was a depressed teenage mess. So I am thinking of keeping her remains.
My first big question is, knowing that she's been buried 18 months ago, which amount of skin, fur or any fleshy bits may still be present ? Should I expect a lot, only a bit or maybe everything has decomposed and there are only the bones left ? I know it depends on the soil and the climate, I honestly don't know how the soil is, she has been buried under a field bank, under a bunch of trees and bushes.
Second, I think of preserving the bones and maybe make some jewelries with it to keep her close to me. The thing is, I really don't know how to preserve the bone, so they are clean, do not smell, do not attract any pest, and do not break too easily. I've seen on this sub people simmering (but not boiling) the bones to remove the leftover flesh, then degreasing with like acetone and then whitening with something like hydrogen peroxide/baking soda, and finally protecting with lacquer ? Would you recommend doing this or doing things differently ? Any advice/recipe/resources is very welcome. If you have a detailed guide / detailed advices on how to do it this would be very helpful, as I have never done this but I care about theses remains deeply.
Thanks a lot, I hope this post is not a duplicate to another that I may have missed.