After we settled our accounts, the receptionist said, "Now if you'll just wait outside, someone will bring Page to you shortly." That kind of struck me. It's kind of sad to think that this companion we had for over a decade is now just a pile of ashes forever. ...No, it's actually really sad. But we believe that an entire soul is a body plus a spirit, and that spirits are eternal. So we have Page's physical remains, but we're pretty sure she's not really "with" them.
Anyway, they brought the ashes out to us, and they were inside a beautiful wooden box, with a little ornament on it that we haven't looked at yet. The whole thing was bubble-wrapped, so we only got a partial view of it. But it really is a lovely keepsake. There was a parchment paper attached to it that said "our condolences" on it, and I imagine there's a message inside that we haven't read yet. You might think we would have been eager to look at all of it right away, but we just have a habit of bringing things home and setting them aside. And we've already said our goodbyes to Page, so...I don't know.
Today I'm thankful for the lovely box with Page's ashes, our friends who are almost always willing to drive us places like the pet hospital, finally getting to meet Rocco in Animal Crossing, not having any work to do tomorrow, and getting to sleep in tomorrow.