Updates

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

New Thing #299--"Born A Mutt, Died A Prince"

Tucked away at the end of a quiet street close to my house is a very interesting place. Memory Park Pet Cemetery has been around for a long time, but I'd never been there before today, when I visited a pet cemetery.

I'm a animal lover, but I've never felt the need to formally entomb any of my pets. However, there must be a lot of people who do, because there were thousands of graves at Memory Park. The dates on the tombstones ranged from the early 1960s to the present day.

I was the only person in the serene area this afternoon. Huge oak trees dotted the space; their leaves were falling quietly to the ground. There were two sections of the cemetery, separated by a small pond. Each part had benches to sit on.

It was very interesting to wander around and look at the tombstones, which fell into several categories. Some had just the pet's name, but most included the year of birth and death. A good chunk of them also had an epitaph; my favorite became the title for this post. On some stones, the cherished pet became a member of the family (i.e., "Sparky" Smith). There were also some stones that had an engraved graphic of the animal, or an actual picture of their pet covered in plastic and attached to the stone. A good number of the graves had decorations on them; some had permanent vases installed so visitors could easily add flowers or other mementos.

As I left, I wondered about the people whose "furry kids" were buried at Memory Park. I hope they're happy that their pet is in this special place.

No comments:

Post a Comment