A beloved pet dog who passed away won’t have the dignified burial her family wanted to give her, after the crematorium lost her ashes.
Holly the Jack Russell was a dear member of the Hicks family since only eight weeks of age, but parents Beck and Matt had to take the difficult decision to put her permanently to rest after kidney problems.
But the Hicks assumed they would be able to bring Holly’s ashes home.
Having taken Holly to County Vets Sandbach for her final moments, they hoped to have ashes, paw prints and fur clippings all returned to them - they were told to expect these within 10 days, but heard nothing.
Becky, 39, said: “My husband rang to see if there was any update and he was told that they didn't know where they were.
“They said they'd known for some time and they had been calling around to see if anyone else had ended up with an extra set they shouldn't have.”
Having confirmed the ashes have been lost, County Vets, the company that runs the vets and the crematorium, has now apologised to the family.
This was after Becky - mum to Artie, 7 and Ted, 2 - accused them of seeming “very relaxed” about it, saying there wasn’t “much urgency”.
"It's devastating. We have been grieving. It's so distressing to be holding your pet, who's a family member, as they pass away. You go with what the vet recommends to keep the stress to a minimum.
"I thought once we got her home we could settle a bit and decide what to do with her ashes. To think they could be so careless and lose them, and then not even seem remorseful."
The family initially had plans to make a permanent memorial to Holly - plans which have now been ruined.
It was to be a fitting tribute to a dog whom Becky first met in Greece 14 years ago, before taking her back to the UK when just a little puppy.
"The ashes are precious and needed to be treated with care,” Becky said. "Holly loved lying under the oak tree. We had wondered about burying the ashes in the garden, and we wanted to have a sort of garden ornament, so then we would be able to know where she is.
"Holly has been my little shadow since I got her. There's a Holly-shaped hole."
Matt, Becky’s husband, said: "They are probably lost is the message I am getting. They're running out of ideas about how to find them. It's very distressing. It's been a nightmare."
A spokesperson for County Vets Sandbach, who also own the crematorium, said: “Unfortunately after checks, we cannot locate the ashes of this pet. We are in contact with our client and we are very sorry that we’ve not been able to return their pet to them and we are ensuring our client has a fitting memorial.
"We take the integrity of this process very seriously and we will be looking carefully at how this unusual mistake has happened."
