A family have been left heartbroken after their beloved dog's ashes were lost. Becky Hicks and husband Matt made the hard decision to put their 14-year old pooch to sleep.
The vets that they normally go to was closed, they took pet Holly to another of its branches, County Vets in Sandbach. They expected the vets and the crematorium to give them their dog's ashes paw prints and fur clippings - but after 10 days they had not heard anything.
The company that runs both the vets and the crematorium has now confirmed that Holly's ashes have been lost, and has apologised to the family Stoke on Trent Live reports.
Becky, 39, said: "They said that we should expect them back within 10 working days. But we hadn't heard anything at all.
"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.
"They seem to have been very relaxed about it. There doesn't seem to have been 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."
Becky brought Holly back to the UK when she moved back here from Greece 14 years ago, when Holly was a pup. She was recently diagnosed with kidney failure and her condition "deteriorated quickly".
She said the family's plans to create a permanent memorial to their beloved pet were now in tatters. Becky added: "The ashes are precious and needed to be treated with care.
"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."
Husband Matt 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 spokesman 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."
