Hartsdale Pet Cemetery and Crematory in Hartsdale, New York: A Final Resting Place for Fido

Kieran and Patty Feerick were on their way home from Sunday mass when they stopped to visit Kelly. As it turned out, it was a good thing they stopped because the impatiens they had planted several weeks earlier at the grave had wilted in the oppressive July heat.

Mr. Feerick grabbed an empty bucket, went to a nearby water faucet, and filled it. Then his wife carefully walked the slope around the grave and soaked the ground with water. The impatiens would soon be revived by the only two people who ever loved Kelly.

The couple used to visit every Sunday, said Mr. Feerick in a heavy brogue. "But she's been gone since 1995 and we come less and less now. Once every few weeks."

Kelly died a piece at a time, said Mrs. Feerick. "First she lost her hearing, then her eyesight. Then one morning I found her lying on the floor and she couldn't lift her head. That's when we decided she shouldn't suffer anymore." The Feericks put their beloved Kelly to sleep.

The poodle-terrier mixed breed, who used to sit between her parents in the front seat of their car, is buried at the Hartsdale, NY, Pet Cemetery and Crematory, an oasis of precious memories located just behind a Dunkin Donuts and just down the street from a Pathmark grocery store.

America's first pet cemetery was established in 1896 by a prominent New York City veterinarian, Samuel Johnson, who offered a section of his apple orchard in then-rural Hartsdale as a burial plot for a friend's dog. That one compassionate act became a cornerstone for the cemetery, which eventually grew to a final resting place for more than 100,000 pets. Its perpetual inhabitants include dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, hamsters, one monkey and even a lion cub.

To walk through the place, a miniature version of cemeteries as we know them, is to marvel at its history, its reverence for man's best friends, and its testament to the depth of human grief. The cemetery brochure, given to those facing the same tough decision made by the Feericks, reassures us that mourning and formal interment of a pet is perfectly acceptable. "Some may not understand the profound sense of loss that one feels when their pet dies," it reads. "We do."

"From the time we are contacted, we spare no detail to lessen the burden of your grief. We make all the necessary arrangements to transport your pet either from your home or your veterinarian's office."

At the Hartsdale cemetery, one is assisted with all the decisions and details associated with death: Choosing from among plywood, pine, poplar, cherry, or oak caskets (prices range from $125 up to $650); whether to inter your pet in a cement vault; whether to pay for routine gravesite maintenance or to do it yourself; and whether to select the option of a private viewing room in which you can "share a moment of peace and solitude" before the burial.

The tiny headstones and monuments, spaced much closer together than in a human cemetery, sit on a tiered hillside. Visitors, including many tourists, walk the paths meandering in and around stands of apple trees and read the headstone and monument inscriptions:

Metzie
My one and only friend lies here

Frisch
Another star shines in heaven

Our Beloved Pudgy
1962-1979

Our Darling Cat
Dash
1952-1962

Thor
Good Boy
1947-1960

Some headstones include a Plexiglass likeness of the deceased, and others are etched with hearts and Stars of David. Some stand as tribute to two pets or more:

For You I Wait
At Heaven's Gate
Scamp
Pidge

One family plot, established by Mrs. Cheever Porter, consists of the graves of eight champion Irish setters, the dates of their deaths ranging from 1927 to 1951. And the largest vault at Hartsdale pays tribute to Toodles and Sally, dogs once belonging to M.F. Walsh, the wife of a wealthy New York businessman. Dated 1917, the tomb is inscribed: "My dear little true-loving hearts, who would lick the hand that had no food to offer."

Once a luxury of only the rich and famous, the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery is now home to Everydog. Yet the most frequently visited headstones include those placed by Princess Lwoff-Parlaghy, whose lion cub Goldfleck was buried here in 1912. Goldfleck was purchase from Ringling Brothers from the eccentric Hungarian princess and once stayed with the rest of her entourage at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Also popular are the graves of Zowie and dog and Rastas the monkey, both pets once owned by dance Irene Castle. Other notables who buried their loved ones here include George Raft, Gloria De Haven, Kate Smith, Elizabeth Arden, Joe Garagiola, Gene Krupa and former New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker.

But the vast majority of the graves at Hartsdale mark nothing more than someone's love for a four-legged creature or a fine-feathered friend. Police officers have wept here during services for their K-9 partners. A blind newsstand operator sadly said goodbye to his seeing-eye dog, Tim, in a ceremony here attended by more than 100 people.

While Hartsdale is a place to say goodbye, it is not in the business of grief counseling. So cemetery co-owners Edward C. Martin Jr. and Pat Grosso are careful to provide mourners with information about support groups. The cemetery's web site, for example, includes links to such organizations as the Association for Pet Loss & Bereavement in Brooklyn, NY.

The Feericks, who never had children, admit that they often treated Kelly like a child. "We never got another dog," said Mrs. Feerick. "I couldn't bring myself to replace her. We have 15 years of wonderful memories."

One of those memories, said Mr. Feerick, was the family's weekly trips to the McDonald's drive-through. "Kelly would sit between us in the front seat of the car and order the usual - two cheeseburgers."

The Hartsdale Pet Cemetery and Crematory is located at 75 North Central Park Ave., Hartsdale, NY.