A woman paid thousands of dollars to have her beloved cat freeze-dried after she died unexpectedly.
Soren High, a clothing designer from Portland, Oregon shared a viral video on her TikTok account, @teapourn, which has now amassed over 4.9 million views.
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“I witnessed my cat being killed by a dog I was fostering in front of my house late at night,” the 35-year-old told her followers.
“This has been one of the hardest losses of my life and I’ve never experienced anything like this before and since her death was such a sudden loss,” she shared.
High’s cat, Lokicat, died on 18 February.
The heartbroken pet owner decided the best way to memorialise her much loved furbaby was to freeze-dry her.
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“I knew I wanted to have [Lokicat] preserved the day I took her home,” she told Insider. “It was an immediate knowledge that we were going to be together forever.”
“Freeze drying has less impact on the body tissues [compared to taxidermy], making the preservation much more ideal. There’s very little chance that she wouldn’t look like herself through freeze-dry,” High explained in a follow-up video.
High kept her cat’s body in her freezer for a month before shopping the body to the Animal Family Pet Preservation in Ohio, which offers freeze-drying as an alternative option to taxidermy.
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During the freeze-drying process, cold temperatures are applied in a vacuum over an extended period of time to remove moisture from the body tissue.
She documented every part of the freeze-drying process, including packing Lokicat’s coffin for shipping, along with flowers and ice packs.
Three months after sending her cat’s body away to be freeze-dried, High received her cat in the mail.
She shared her excitement about reuniting with her pet and being able to ‘see her in the house again, just knowing that she’s there’.
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High says that having Lokicat around the house has helped her with dealing with grief.
The mourning-pet-parent now uses her TikTok account as a platform to share details about how she cares for her freeze-dried cat, including cleaning the Lokicat’s glass eyes and how she maintains her fur, such as by ensuring Lokicat isn’t in humidity above 80% because of the risk of mold and decay.
Now, Lokicat resides on High’s bedside table.
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Loki’s organs were moved and then cremated, except for her heart which was also freeze-dried.
“She is actually fully intact, meaning she was never skinned, and all her bones are actually still inside,” High explained in a video.
“Remembering Lokicat the only way she deserved. Having a pet preserved is a personal decision and one that many may never understand.”
RIP Lokicat.
Gregory Robinson