It's so good to know there are many people so much like ourselves .
No burying the memories
Dogs, cats and even rats get a final resting place any beloved member of the family deserves in Vernon Hills
By Lisa Black
Tribune staff reporter
Published January 18, 2007
Sometimes when the sun casts a single beam on a gravestone or a bird flutters nearby, Dorothy Keyser could swear that her dogs know she's there.
At Aarrowood Pet Cemetery in Vernon Hills, Keyser, 73, has found peace in her regular visits--often two or three times weekly--since 1975.
That was the year she buried Cindy-Ann, a shepherd stray that died shortly after Keyser's father discovered the abused pup outside their Waukegan home. Besides the shepherd, Keyser has laid to rest three more dogs at the cemetery, decorating their graves with holiday wreaths and seasonal bouquets of tulips, hyacinths or fall mums.
"An animal will not lie to you or deceive you," Keyser said, as she pointed out graves and their history. ("Beloved Baby Dumpling, 1977-1994" includes a photo and appears to be a beagle.)
"It's unconditional love," she said.
A statue of St. Francis of Assisi welcomes visitors to Aarrowood, where 12 acres are reserved for pets and their people, with an adjacent 35 acres restricted to human burial. The cemetery, at 24090 N. U.S. Highway 45, also operates a cremation service.
Keyser has met some of her closest friends as they socialized over their pets' grave sites, she said.
One summer, a friend, Mary Lou, arrived in her Mercedes with roses and champagne. After laying a rose at each of their pets' graves, the friends sipped the bubbly.
Mary Lou has since died and been buried next to her German shepherd and rabbit. When Mary Lou purchased the lot, Keyser asked if she planned for her husband to join her nearby.
"Hell, no!" retorted Mary Lou, according to Keyser.
When at Aarrowood, the friends enjoyed the company of a white goose, Lucy, they dubbed "the matriarch." After Lucy died, they buried her there too.
Gravestones range from simple markers to elaborately cordoned-off memorials, with many including a picture of the pet. "Pookie, my buddy" is remembered, as are companion cats Spice and Friski and a proud bulldog with drooping jowls named Winston "Moodgie Boy."
"There is a plot for three rats that were buried," said Judie Kaplan, 62, of Buffalo Grove. "They are so cute. Very colorful. Each one maybe lived a few years but obviously lived with someone who really, really loved them."
Kaplan visits weekly and reads a Jewish prayer for Suki, a Shih Tzu, and four other pets buried at Aarrowood. She covers their graves with handmade blankets in the winter, which helps her feel they are protected.
The Aarrowood staff has learned that the depths of grief for a pet know few bounds, including the cost for burial. Prices begin at $1,000 for basic burials and can reach $6,000 or more for extravagant services and headstones.
Priests, pastors and rabbis conduct burial services for pets and people alike at Aarrowood, one of about 800 pet cemeteries or crematoriums nationwide. While Illinois state law does not prohibit animals from being buried alongside humans, few cemeteries permit it, according to the Illinois Cemetery and Funeral Home Association in Homewood.
Instead, people often opt to be buried in pet graveyards.
One woman asked to be surrounded by her pets after she died and was buried at Aarrowood. Her eight dogs, which preceded her in death, were moved from other parts of the cemetery to accommodate her request, said Steve Guillen, grounds supervisor.
A few weeks ago, a man drove in from Arizona, his dead dog on dry ice in the trunk, so the pet could join a sibling in a burial plot, he said.
Guillen prepares the bodies before they are laid in caskets on a pink or blue blanket and pillow, often with a beloved chew toy next to them.
"I show them from the neck up," Guillen said. "I try to keep the eyes closed and their tongue in their mouth. I brush their hair."
Outdoors, the groundskeepers shovel paths when it snows, so Keyser and others can reach their pets.
Keyser, a piano teacher and vegan, was so inspired by her pets that she started a non-profit humane council and speaks in school classrooms on responsible care of animals and the environment.
As a strong-willed advocate for pets long before it became fashionable, she is easily recognized at Aarrowood, where she is trying to bring back an annual Pet Memorial Day in September.
The event used to draw hundreds to the cemetery, which opened in 1968 and has since become the final resting spot for thousands of dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, horses, hamsters--and some of their owners.
Guillen said that while it might seem as if people today treat their animals like humans, he believes little has changed about the human-pet bond other than social acceptance.
"I think people aren't ashamed of it anymore," he said. "Sometimes people love pets more than other people."
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