As a cat lover, sometimes – if you are very lucky – you are blessed with a companion that transcends being a pet. They are your comfort, your friend, your confessor, and life is brighter having them in it. You might make them promise to live forever, because you don’t know how you can live without them, but deep down you know that is a promise they cannot keep, as much as you know they would if they could.

Loving a pet that much is a blessing, but one that eventually comes to an end. I know, because it happened to me not too long ago. After I spent what would be the last hours with Macie, beyond the incredible hurt, I knew I had to find a way to memorialize her life. Later, when I brought home her ashes, I hid the box away, because a cold impersonal box did nothing to remind me of anything but the deep wound of her death. I knew I could do better.

After some time, I had an idea that finally felt right: I painted her as a saint, in the style of religious icons. It is a piece that I look at every day, and it has always seemed like such a better memorial than a cold box. She was, after all, such an important part of my life, and the love she gave did not end in her death. Her portrait looking back at me is a reminder of that love, which is the only thing that can eclipse the loss of her death.

Many times, in the years since, people have remarked about the icon I made for her, and I knew I wanted to offer them eventually as commissions. However, what I really wanted to do was create an icon that could also be a reliquary – a container for ashes, a collar, a favorite toy – like any saint should have.

What is it: a Gothic arch shaped wood panel with a container on the reverse for the relic of your choosing. On the front, a custom portrait of your cat is rendered in watercolor, colored pencil, and acrylic in a color scheme personal to you. Includes a satin rope for hanging, but they can also stand on their own on a mantlepiece, shelf, etc.

For more information or to commission your own, follow the link below.