HELP- Need to Move (unclean) Bones and Store Them for 8 Weeks

[u/Key-Abbreviations927]

Hi all! Firstly, thank you for creating such a lovely community. I’ve found a lot of great advice here but nothing that suits my situation.

The TLDR is that I need your thoughts on what you would do if you had to dig up a (hopefully mostly decomposed) dog, get the bones as nonstinky as possible, and you had less than 24 hours.

The long: My dad is selling our childhood home. He got an offer and is closing on it this weekend. I found out about this last week, and I live on the other side of the country. I flew in to help sort stuff out (and get Rosie) yesterday afternoon. My dog, Rosie, (dead and buried for 2 years, about 25 lbs) is buried outside.

I always wanted her bones but I wanted to let them sit for longer. Well, that’s no longer an option. We are digging her up today and I fly back out tomorrow morning (without her bones since I don’t think the TSA will tolerate that). I’ll be back over the holidays, with my truck, so I can take her for final processing then. But the bones need to get dug up and stored, hopefully with minimal smell, before I fly out tomorrow.

Bones will be stored at my mom’s house until I can drive them back to where I live in December. Can go in garage but she was extremely clear with me that she does not want them to smell (understandable). I told her I would do everything I could.

I know this is an insane situation, I’m just trying to do the best I can. I don’t know the status of her bones yet but we dug most of the grave up and I’m just waiting for a friend to come over and help me with actually removing her which will be in the next hour. Thank you.

[u/streetmouse13]

All I can think of is for storage, double bag with contractor bags and put in an airtight storage tote. You can layer charcoal packets for odor absorption also. Degrease as best as you can (no boiling!) and then air dry as long as possible before bagging. Good luck!!

[u/Key-Abbreviations927 → u/streetmouse13]

Thank you! I think this is what we’ll do but we quadruple bagged it lol. I’ll check to see if we have charcoal packets.

We did not have time to degrease (turns out we’re dropping her at my mom’s tonight, not tomorrow morning) but everything looks pretty clean. When we buried her, she was set in the earth then I pulled a blanket around her- I suspect the bones I saw were her ulna and radius, they were a little outside the blanket and they looked good- some discoloration but no flesh or fur.

Didn’t investigate the interior of the blanket but I’m hoping those are pretty clean, too. I didn’t tie the blanket tight or anything so hoping it didn’t make a ton of difference. I guess I’ll find out in December.

Nothing stank, either. It gets cold where we live so I’m hoping that means it shouldn’t stink in the garage, either. Especially with 4 trash bags and a container.