A TikToker is documenting the emotional strategy of freeze-drying their 16-year-old cat who was tragically killed, igniting a dialog about grief

• A TikTok creator’s 16-year-old black cat, Loki, was killed by a foster canine in February.
• Million are following alongside as TikToker Soren Excessive paperwork the method of getting Loki’s physique freeze-dried.
• Whereas many are effusive with help, others have criticized Excessive’s orthodox grieving strategies.

Soren Excessive, a 35-year-old clothier and TikToker who resides in Portland, Oregon, has gone viral for the unorthodox means they’re grieving their late cat, Loki. 

Over the previous three months, Excessive has documented the method of getting the 16-year-old black cat freeze-dried. In line with Animal Household Pet Preservation, which rendered the service, freeze-drying is a substitute for taxidermy, the place chilly temperatures are utilized in a vacuum over a very long time to take away moisture from physique tissue.

“I knew I needed to have [Loki] preserved the day I took her house,” Excessive informed Insider. “It was a right away information that we have been going to be collectively eternally.”

Excessive first started posting in regards to the plans in March and subsequently despatched the corpse off to Ohio. They’ve since documented each step within the course of, from packing up Loki’s coffin for transport — full with flowers and ice packs — to chronicling the right way to look after the freeze-dried corpse, together with cleansing her glass eyes and sustaining her fur. 

A number of movies within the collection have garnered hundreds of thousands of views. Essentially the most viral, the place Excessive unboxes Loki’s physique, has 4.8 million. 

“My cat arrived within the mail at present in case you’re prepared to satisfy her,” Excessive says on the high of that video as they’re seen opening the package deal and dissolving into tears holding Loki’s newly-preserved corpse.

Excessive believes her cat would have needed this memorial

Loki handed away in February in a tragic accident that Excessive calls “essentially the most traumatizing expertise” of their life.

One evening, when Excessive was taking their foster canine for a stroll, the massive Dane combine lunged for a rabbit, and Excessive misplaced management of his leash. However as a substitute of going after the rabbit, the canine deviated and attacked Loki, who was sitting outdoors. The cat died on the best way to the vet’s workplace, Excessive informed Insider.

Shortly after Loki died, Excessive stated their inclinations to have Loki preserved have been affirmed whereas she was tripping on psychedelics. Excessive “had an expertise with [Loki’s] soul,” they informed Insider, whereupon the cat condoned her preservation. “She informed me to simply love her and this was what I felt like loving her was.”

Excessive in the end opted for freeze-driying over taxidermy as a result of it causes much less hurt to the physique. It additionally “lasts so much longer” and felt like “extra humane apply,” they stated. On TikTok, Excessive defined that Loki hadn’t been skinned, and that each one of her bones have been nonetheless intact.

The process price a complete of $3,000, Excessive informed Insider, and the creator requested followers for donations to be able to afford the expensive enterprise. They in the end raised $4,300 — with the remaining $1,300 going to 2 animal rescue organizations. 

Excessive stated they have been initially shocked after which warmed by Loki’s corpse

After they obtained the physique, Excessive was shocked by the completed product, together with how the entire particulars — together with Loki’s ear hair and bald eyebrows — had been completely depicted. She even smelled like herself, Excessive stated.

“I will admit it, it utterly broke me at first,” Excessive stated of seeing her corpse for the primary time. “And you then see how good and full she is, after which all of the sudden you might be complete once more.”

Along with Loki’s freeze-dried physique, Excessive has sought to memorialize the cat in a number of different methods. Loki’s coronary heart was freeze-dried individually, and the remainder of her organs have been cremated to be stowed in a customized urn. Excessive can also be working with a ceramicist on Etsy to sculpt a pile of Loki’s meals out of clay to be positioned in her outdated meals bowl.

For now, the creator is holding Loki’s physique on her bedside desk, however is in the end planning on displaying the cat on a shelf in the lounge.

Whereas most viewers have been supportive, others have criticized the unconventional means Excessive is processing their grief. Most individuals puzzled if seeing a useless pet’s physique could possibly be re-traumatizing. 

“I may by no means do that. to see my boys face with out him responding to me I might be damaged over again,” wrote a high remark; “This could make my grieving course of unattainable,” one other stated.

Some have known as the choice “unusual,” and vile, and likened it to “demonic torture.” 

However Excessive stated they selected to share the story to indicate viewers that freeze-drying was an choice. And, most significantly, it was an choice that soothed their mourning course of.

“I believe grief is extremely sophisticated, and everybody’s going to do it just a little bit in another way,” Excessive stated. ” Whether or not that is grief or acceptance, I am undecided. However I do know that all the things in me stated that she deserved this.”