THIS SUCKS. Pet's Rest Cemetery is just down the road from Umlaut's house and it's one of my favorite places to wander around. It's a sad and peaceful place; like a Disney movie without all of the cutesy crap. Cue 'Pet Sematary' by the Ramones...
Pet cemetery ordered to exhume animals on leased plot
San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, June 11, 2006
(06-11) 13:32 PDT COLMA, Calif. (AP) --
About 1,000 animals, including dogs, cats and monkeys, must be exhumed from a pet cemetery because their burial plots are on leased land the owner wants back.
Phillip C'de Baca, owner of the Pet's Rest Cemetery in Colma, said he has contacted pet owners asking them to pick new burial spots on cemetery property. Free cremation also is being offered.
"All these years I was never told Poquito was buried on leased land," said Cathryn Hrudicka, who buried her tiny mixed-breed dog 18 years ago. "Now we have to open it up and bring back all the grief."
One-third of the cemetery belongs to real estate firm Cypress Abbey Co. and has been leased informally since the 1960's, C'de Baca said.
A formal agreement struck in 1986 allowed the cemetery to use the land rent-free on the condition the graves would be exhumed and the land returned in 20 years.
C'de Baca said he believed he would be able to buy the land at the end of the term.
"I probably should have been more clear" to pet owners about the status of the land, C'de Baca said. "But I didn't know he was sincere about not wanting to sell."
Thomas Atwood of Cypress Abbey said he empathizes with the pet owners but needs the land for a planned human cemetery entrance.
A group of pet owners are trying to form a cooperative to buy the land, but Atwood said he's unwilling to sell.
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I wasn't kidding when I said Pet's Rest is one of Umlaut's favorite places. Here are a few pics that I've taken there over the years:
Pet's Rest on an overcast day in April.
My soul mate cat.
Nazi Dogs... "Eva Braun".. What a cute name!
"She never knew she was a rabbit."Hmmm, the land owner "needs the land for a planned human cemetery entrance." Pet's Rest is next door to huge Chinese and Serbian cemeteries... Hmmm.
"Sometimes dead is better." - from Pet Sematary by Stephen King
