May they rest in peace

[Anonymous Poster]

I’ve driven past this place several times a week for the last few years. I only just learned that it was a final resting place for beloved pets. The small crosses and headstones are visible from the road, but it never dawned on me to ask why they were so small. Just one of those things that I wondered about but never pursued an answer to until now. I never have been much of a believer in ‘pet funerals’, and never could understand why anybody would go to the trouble and expense.

Today, having some time on my hands, I stopped to visit this cemetary. I’ve lost pets before, and they were always buried somewhere on the property. In fact, yesterday, I was standing near the very spot where Dolly, my daughter’s little mutt dog was buried last year. It was the one place I could find that would make an adequate grave site and where the ground wasn’t crisscrossed with roots or other obstructions. The point is, I was standing right there, and Dolly never crossed my mind. Not the fact that she was the friendliest little thing you could ever hope for in a dog. Or the fact that she was the best rat catcher I have ever seen, and that includes two useless cats. There was nothing there to indicate that I was standing near hallowed ground. No reminders. There should have been.

After she was bitten by a coral snake, I buried her myself, with no ceremony. I was thinking that it would be easier for my daughter to not know when, how, or where Dolly was interred. I figured it was enough for her to suffer the loss without all the gory details. I learned today that I may have made a mistake. Not just on my daughter’s account, but on Dolly’s.

As I wandered past the tombstones, and engraved crosses I was struck by the detail that went into some of the markers, short biographies, intimate information on the deceased pet, sun bleached collars, leashes, ID tags, feeding bowls, for anything from ducks, and parakeets, all the way up to great danes. Photographs, encased in weather proof glass frames, adorned some of these grave sites. Even the occasional trophy, or blue ribbon, declaring that this particular pet was more than just a pet. This pet was a somebody.

While at the pet cemetary it occured to me that I could feel the loss of these other pet owners, and suddenly I got it. These folks wanted a place that was special, a place to put a special being that brought them love and comfort and happiness. Even if they had to pay for that privilege.

Dolly loved the hog pens. She was tutoring herself in the fine art of hog management, dog style. Nothing that we tried to teach her, just something that she aspired to on her own. It just happened to work out that she is buried near there. She was no master hog dog, or trophy or blue ribbon winner. Dolly’s accomplishments were few and fairly unremarkable. But she was loved nonetheless for that.

By this weekend I plan to have a fine cross, engraved with Dolly’s name and a few other endearments prepared. A sturdy one that will stand the test of time and weather. This weekend we, even if it’s just my daughter and I, will have a ceremony. The next time I am standing near that spot I will remember her, and I will miss her. It's no less than she deserves.

Some may say that it may be a mistake to bring back the memory, to dredge up the hurt. I feel that it is a necessary thing to do. For Dolly. For her memory. She has a right to be remembered. Even if she was only a ‘somebody’ to us.

 

[RichZ]

Cindi, I certainly agree!!!

To me, my pets ARE people. Maybe furry and four legged, but they love no less than people do, and are loved by my wife and me very much. They deserve everything a four legged person does. Even in death.

I'm glad that you'll remember Dolly, and I have no doubt that you and your daughter will be with her again, one day. I believe that animals have souls just as people do. That thought always comforts me.

 

[Rubintropfen]

I have been making my own markers from native stones. I just make one side as flat as possible and engrave the name and dates. I print out what I want it to say at full size, tape the paper to the rock, and grind through it with the angle grinder and Dremel tool. If I had a sand blaster I'm sure that would make it go a bit quicker.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to make another one soon, because our 13 year old house dog is fading fast (chest X-ray shows tumors). I hope our next Guiding Eyes puppy shows up before she is done.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( my pets ARE people )</font>
The politically correct refer to them as animal companions.... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( a final resting place for beloved pets )</font>

Like this one I drive by every day? I can't tell just what model Kubota that is in the background or whether he was digging a new grave or a hole to plant more trees in with the backhoe.

 

[cowboydoc]

I think your first inclination was right. To just bury the dog and move on. I certainly understand people's attachment to animals but enough is enough when we start putting animals on the same level as people. There is a way to nature and all things. It's one thing to have respect for animals, the land, etc. When we start to move beyond respect to treating animals and in most cases by animal rights people putting the animals rights above a person we've gone too far. I saw where CO is starting to put rights to animal law. This is a gross mistake in my opinion.

One animal is no different than another. You can't hold a dog up to people standards and then have a t-bone for dinner. I have had many a calf that was more tame and could do more than alot of dogs when I was showing as a kid. Very difficult in my opinion to give preferred status to one animal and not another. Once you do the same with animals what about plants? Nature is as nature intended it to be. If God had wanted animals to be on the same level as people he would have given them cognitive reasoning and opposing digits. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Bird]

Wow! I agree, but figure it's dangerous to say so. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Of course, I think we all get more emotionally attached to certain individual animals than to others even of the same species, so our feelings toward those particular animals are sometimes different.

 

[cowboydoc]

I agree, but figure it's dangerous to say so

Yea I agree with you there Bird. Just trying to put a little reason and sanity to some of this. I certainly care for my animals and treat them very well but I would never consider them to have any kind of human rights nor would I ever put an animal over a person or even on the same level.

I agree we get attached to animals and things. Heck I still look back at my 67 RS/SS Camaro that my sister wrecked and feel like crying over that car. Spent four years restoring that baby to completely original condition. I feel more for that car than I do most of the animals I've ever had. But that doesn't mean that I think we should give a car rights. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I agree with you to a certain extent but you can't compare apples and oranges. Any cow that fetches the paper for me or alerts when someone rattles my door knob and keeps my feet warm in the winter by curling up next to me is going to give my dog some pretty stiff competition. Not to mention seeing eye dogs. Never heard of a seeing eye bull. Some animals ARE more important than others.

I think a lot of these folks use pet cemetraries because they maybe are physically unable to bury a pet themselves, or they live in an apartmenet, whatever. I do beleive a person can get carried away and spend too much and try too hard, but I think pet cemetraies have a useful place in our society.

 

[cowboydoc]

I certainly am not against a pet cemetary. Just against giving animals rights and comparing them with people. I don't even think it's wrong that some people feel that animals are just as or more important than people. But in the end they are animals. They only respond to what is given to them. They don't rationally or cognitively think. If you abuse an animal it will never trust you again. If you treat it good it will always be by your side. Not because an animal feels love but because an animal gets rewarded for being with you. Be this in praise, food, scratching an itch, etc. They equate people with their food system. In the morning my cows will come running when they hear the feed grinder. They'll mother up to that grinder like she's their best friend. But they've just been trained to come to the sound of the grinder because they know they're going to get fed. Dogs are the same way. It all depends on what you train them to. They learn by association and repetition. They don't learn by thinking.

I think you already made my point though when you said some animals are more important than others. We certainly don't say that one person is more important than another.