TEWKSBURY — A mix-up by an Andover animal hospital has the cremated remains of a Tewksbury woman's dog headed for a coral reef in Florida — instead of back in her hands as she requested.
And time's apparently running out to fix the mistake.
Mary Ricci's 14-year-old therapy dog, Delilah, was put down on March 2 at Bulger Animal Hospital in Andover after suffering from dementia.
Ricci told Wicked Local that she instructed that Delilah's ashes be sent back to her. But that's not what happened.
Instead, Ricci said that due to a “mix-up” at Bulger, a “communal” cremation was chosen for the black mouth cur therapy dog, which meant she was cremated with a group of other dogs. This occurred at Forget Me Not Pet Crematorium in Northborough.
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Most pet owners who had their dogs cremated in the same group as Delilah had previously agreed to not have their respective pets' ashes returned.
Rather, they agreed to have ashes made into memorials, which are put in coral reefs in Florida, according to Forget Me Not Pet Crematorium's parent company, Gateway Services Inc. in Canada.