File this under “Only in Los Angeles” …. This past weekend I went to the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park to shop for an urn for Walter. Yep, that’s exactly what it sounds like – a cemetery for pets.
Okay, WARNING: This post is kind of sad. If you have lost a pet (or even a human) recently, you may want to close this tab now because I make some inappropriate comments about dead animals because humor is the only way I know how to deal with things and yes I’m aware I should be undergoing some kind of regular therapy but that stuff’s expensive, y’all.
I’ve been putting off buying an urn for Walter because I guess I’m still sort of in denial about the whole thing. But I was in the Calabasas area this weekend and decided to swing by the ole pet cemetery to see if they sold urns (and because I’ve always been super curious about it).
The pet memorial park looks just like any other cemetery, only the headstones are a lot smaller and they have names like “Mr. Whiskers” on them. I know it sounds like I’m cracking jokes, but there’s really no other way to describe it. It had a small entrance and one lane road leading into it, and I had to wait for two cars to leave before I could pull in. Honestly, my one thought about pet cemeteries is, “Do people really visit their pets, like they do with humans they loved and lost?” The answer is, yes. Yes they do.
Nooooooooo, tiny animal coffins. D:
More tiny urns than you can shake a dead cat at. (Ugh, sorry.)
I immediately felt uneasy and overwhelmed with all the “Your cat is dead” reminders and wanted to run away, and it probably wouldn’t have been the strangest thing to happen to sweet Marie (that day even), but I kept my composure and started pricing the urns I liked. I thought I wanted something I could engrave, but as I perused the shelves I kept coming back to one urn that was way more expensive than I wanted to spend but I ultimately decided that I should get the thing that I loved the most because I’ll probably keep it forever and Walter deserves the best.
So I did. And I talked the lady down $5; I bet Walter would be proud of that. She was a total cheapskate.
Also, my Pomeranian obsession follows me everywhere. This is a little flat-sided magnet that you stick to the side of your urn. Errrrgh, creepy.
After I made my purchase, I walked around the cemetery for just a little bit but for some reason I didn’t think to take photos. So here are some from the internet. All of these are from Yelp.
Sir Pretzel Stick is my favorite.
I want to visit the pet cemetery again when I’m less emotional. It was certainly interesting and I’m sure I could get lost reading headstones for hours.
While we are on the subject of dead Walter, I also bought a memorial pendant on Ebay to take Walter around Europe with me. I really wanted to order a cool necklace I saw on Etsy where they create a glass blown necklace and mix in the ashes, and I’ll still order it, but with planning our new vacation I completely forgot about it and didn’t order it in time for our trip. So this is the next best thing, and it actually works out a little better because since we are staying at the Hotel Canal and Walter, at the end of our vacation we are going to release the small pinch of Walter ashes into the Venice canals.
Sorry about the downer post today! I’ll be back to my normal nonsense tomorrow.
(All photos are my own unless otherwise marked. Please do not use without permission.)
