Faithful unto Death : Pet cemeteries, animal graves and eternal devotion

The remarkable stories of beloved pets—from the famous and unusual to the everyday—memorialized at burial sites around the world, accompanied by a rich selection of archival photos and the author's evocative images of their final resting places.

When a little dog named Cherry died in 1881, his owners arranged for a grave in a nearby gatekeeper's garden in London. At this time, the idea that a pet, even one that had lived as a family member, might be given a dignified burial was considered comical. But when other pet owners—likewise determined to memorialize their companion animals—followed suit, the world's first urban pet cemetery was born. More soon followed across Europe, the United States, and then the rest of the world, resulting in a revolution in the way we consider animals. Faithful Unto Death tells the stories of people who gave their hearts to a disparate variety of species, yet were all united in one common belief: that the reward at death for a faithful animal companion should reflect the love it offered during life.

Losing a pet has always been a unique kind of pain. No set rituals exist to help provide closure when pets die, there are no readily shared passages from spiritual texts, no community of compassion to surround the mourner and help alleviate grief. And there is a sense of taboo, that it is somehow socially incorrect to mourn an animal as one would a person and feel the pain so intensely. Faithful Unto Death confronts this taboo by telling the stories of people who have memorialized their beloved animals.

The book addresses the moral and spiritual prejudices that have historically surrounded animals, and reveals how, in the face of these prejudices, a movement started in the nineteenth century to treat pets with dignity even in death. It is a fight that is still far from over, but the triumphs that are revealed as the book unfolds, found in burial grounds small to grand and on monuments humble to huge, possess the power to touch everyone who has ever cared for an animal companion. In tracing the historical evolution of pet cemeteries through the stories of the people and pets that have been integral to their development, this book reveals both similarities in the way we mourn animal companions and a stunning cultural diversity. From humble Cherry in London to pets of the rich and powerful, this is a history filled with inspiration, wild eccentricity, and eternal love.

Contributor Bio(s)

Paul Koudounaris has a doctorate in Art History from the University of California and has written widely on European ossuaries and charnel houses for both academic and popular journals. He is the author for T&H of The Empire of Death, Memento Mori and Heavenly Bodies, and in 2020 Holt published his A Cat's Tale. Paul is a member of the Order of the Good Death, and has over 100k followers on Instagram.

Quotes/Reviews

"Dogs bury bones and we bury dogs—but why? In his passionately researched answer, Paul Koudounaris offers the same reverence to the rural pet cemeteries of RV-owners as he does the granite mausoleums of Gilded Age millionaires." -Caitlin Doughty

"A poignant and moving celebration of mankind's animal companions that is sure to touch the hearts of anyone who reads it. Koudounaris reminds us that grief can cross the boundaries of species, and that the pain we suffer when a beloved pet dies is equal to the love we shared while they were alive." -Lindsey Fitzharris, "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Facemaker"

"By exploring how different cultures throughout history celebrate and commemorate life and death, Paul Koudounaris has provided us with a unifying perspective through his research, travels, and photo documentation. He makes the very taboo subject of death seem less fearful, and, dare I say, entertaining! A book that is the first of its kind, Faithful unto Death: Pet cemeteries, animal graves, and eternal devotion documents the unique, loving, and faithful relationships humans have had with animals throughout history, and how they respond when their companions pass on from this world. " -Nicole Angemi, "Mother Knows Death" podcast, author of "Nicole Angemi’s Anatomy Book: A Catalog of Familiar, Rare, and Unusual Pathologies"

"A book focused on pet cemeteries as physical reflections of our ever-evolving relationships with our animal companions would be interesting enough, but Faithful Unto Death is so much more. It's a love story as only Paul Koudounaris could tell it, combining his unique expertise as a globetrotting expert on the built environments where we mourn our dead, a compelling storyteller and historian, a committed champion of animal welfare, and a photographer skillfully capturing the poignance of these precarious mourning spaces. Through a mix of original photography, historical photos, and sparkling prose, Koudounaris weaves tales that run the gamut of human emotion. There are awe-inspiring and snort-laugh funny moments peppered throughout, yet the book never wavers from its core truth, that grief springs from true love." -Megan Rosenbloom, author of "Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin"

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The rise of the domestic pet and animal burials through the 19th century

2. Urban pet cemeteries in late 19th- and early 20th-century Europe

3. Early pet cemeteries in North America

4. Humans and animals buried together

5. A study of pet cemetery inscriptions

6. Burials of heroic animals

7. Death in Tinseltown

8. Memorials to the world's most faithful animals