Pet Cemeteries: The Creepy and the Weird


My realtor knew I wanted an odd home, so she sent me a listing for a pet cemetery. I knew it was way outside of town in the middle of the desert basically and I wasn't too interested in the isolation with strangers coming and going on my property and questionable well water. But, I did decide to trek over and give it a look, just in case. It has a chapel on the grounds which sounded pretty cool since I've dreamed of living in a church and it had 5 acres of land that will be worth a fortune in another decade, but once again, I did not want to live in the middle of nowhere and stare at desert.

It had me thinking, though, whether living on a pet cemetery would be disturbing or totally awesome. I would think it'd be awesome, so long as it doesn't play out like the Stephen King novel!

I went looking up something about pet cemeteries and found some cool stuff -

Disneyland

There is a pet cemetery just inside the gates at the Disneyland Haunted Mansion and a collection of pet crypts at the Disney World Haunted Mansion, there is a little known cemetery off the beaten path at Disneyland.

Around the back side of the Mansion, hidden behind the exit, is the original Pet Cemetery started by some cast members years ago. They used ordinary garden statues and made up funny epitaphs. Imagineers learned of its existence and decided to recreate it officially, out front where everyone could see. If you ask nicely, and the Mansion isn't too busy, you might be able to get a private tour of the original pet cemetery from one of the ghoulish butlers or maids.


The graveyard in the attraction does not host any pet markers, although there are one or two ghostly dogs in residence. 






Interesting Graves I found 

Here's some of the stones I found at this pet cemetery that was up for sale.






Two graves that should be side by side -



I found his tomb!


Some people leave flowers on pet graves and perhaps some dog friends leave ---



When I was a kid, we had a pet cemetery at Aspen Grove. We buried geese, dogs, cats, and various found dead animals around the property. And, since I despised baby dolls, when I was given one as a gift, they were promptly buried in the pet cemetery.

Oldest Pet Cemetery


Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in New York was the first pet cemetery in the US founded in 1896.  Here's some of its selling points -
  • Oldest operating pet cemetery in the world
  • Only pet cemetery listed on the National Register of Historic Places
  • Ranked Top 10 Cemetery in the World
  • Certified National Wildlife Habitat
  • Deed restricted land
  • Irrevocable Trust Funds managed by an independent trustee
  • Member of International Association of Pet Cemeteries
  • Family owned and operated for over 40 years
  • Located 30 minutes north of Mid-Town Manhattan
  • Serving all religious denominations


Strange Pet Graves


Sometimes, a pet is immortalized in stone to protect a lost child -



Sometimes, owners hope to recreate a beloved pet -








Boulder City's Creepy Pet Cemetery


Scariest Pet Cemetery? Possibly Boulder City, Nevada. 7450 W Craig Rd. There's been some legends that the mafia from Vegas buried some dead there among the pets and put up fake pet headstones. Ideal way to dispose of a body, eh? This graveyard popped up with no real credit who set it up or what was truly buried there. It was not listed, unofficial, and highly suspect.  There is a legend that if you go at night, a white cat will follow you around.




Stanley Hotel

Stanley Hotel planned to move its pet cemetery -

The graves are to be moved to the other side of a small pond, making way for wedding and corporate retreat pavilion.  The project is a stone's throw from about 18 townhomes in the Stanley Historic District. Neighbor Roxanne VanSkiver and others say they're worried about noise coming from the 200 seat semi-outdoor amphitheater as well as the loss of the historic burial ground for animals. "Elsie," "Holmes" and "Stanley Blue" I, II and III are among roughly dozen marked graves dating back to the 1960s, with stones and a tiny white fence marking the cemetery. Among King's work is "Pet Sematary," a novel about animals and people who demonically come back to life after internment at an ancient Native American burial site. Hotel staff said the cemetery is sometimes a stop on tours,ESTES PARK, Colo.—Plans to dig up a pet cemetery at the Stanley Hotel, which inspired Stephen King's horror novel "The Shining," have neighbors feeling aggrieved. 


Woodland Cemetery



This is the grave of Johnny Morehouse and--according to legend--his dog, a pair who are Woodland's most famous ghostly residents. The story might be rooted in nothing more than an unusual tombstone, but this is what they say: Johnny fell into the Miami & Erie canal and froze to death, despite his faithful dog's efforts to pull him out. After he was buried, the dog laid on his gravesite and wouldn't be moved. Eventually it died from starvation and sadness. A special stone was made in 1861 to commemorate Johnny's dog's devotion. People leave toys, candy, and other trinkets on the stone--a ritual the cemetery management tolerates, as you can tell from the photo above.   Now they say that Johnny and his dog, reunited beyond the grave, roam the cemetery after hours. Barking is heard in the vicinity of the grave, and the two of them are spotted sometimes inside the perimeter fence. If the years I've heard are correct, then Johnny was about five years old when he died. So watch for a little boy and his pet dog. 

Pet Sematary 

The Stephen King book "Pet Sematary" and absolutely creepy movie based on it come to mind right away when you think of pet cemeteries. This should clear up any fascination with pet cemeteries coming back to life.




There's a Catholic Cemetery here in Phoenix and there is a lady who feeds the cats there every evening at twilight. It is pretty creepy and haunting - making animals in the cemetery seem a bit foreboding.





Comments

  1. When I was younger I had a best friend it was a black standard size poodle.I took him everywhere with me.One night I slept at my grandparents house and he got out of the back yard and chased a car and got it.His death was a horrible lesson in death and as a child I was traumatized. He was buried in the back yard and I could see his grave from my second story room.I wished upon a falling star that he would come back to me.It was hard to sleep that 1st night without him with me in bed! I looked out the window at his grave and saw something moving around. Then clear as day, it was a full moon, I saw him cross the backyard.I jumped into my bed and covered my head in my blanket and cried.Then I heard him coming up the stairs his nails clicking and then I felt him jump onto my bed and come snuggle with me! Well since I was a kid and that was my 1st ghost experience I jumped out of my bed and ran downstairs and jumped in my parents bed! My mom said that he was just saying good bye and that he would never hurt me.I thought about that and told her that I had wished for him to come back and now that he had I ran away. I was ashamed of myself and ran back upstairs and called him, but he never came.Once in a while I would be sad or sent to my room I felt his weight jump up on my be next to me but I never 'saw' him again. It was then that I believed in ghosts.If you are not prepared to see a ghost and you don't want them to appear to you ask them not to.

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