Final resting place for the furry and feathered
The gravestones include such names as Heidi, Willie, Trouble, and Mr. Iguana. Heidi was a ten-year-old collie. Willie was a hamster. Trouble was nine years of “no trouble,” but what species we’ll never know. And Mr. Iguana? It seems the name speaks for itself.
These are just a few of the hundreds of interred animals in the city’s most notable pet cemetery, which you’ll find in the Presidio, directly under the new and “reimagined” Doyle Drive, that looming viaduct leading to and from the Golden Gate Bridge. In the last few years the causeway has been seismically retrofitted, and these days the pet cemetery is best seen in passing. Entry is forbidden—at least until the highway reconstruction is complete, no later than 2016.
Info
Address 667 McDowell Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94129, www.presidio.gov/explore/Pages/presidio-pet-cemetery.aspx | Public Transport Bus: 28 (Golden Gate Br Tunnel & Merchant Rd stop) | Tip Take a walk down to historic Fort Point to learn more about this incredible former military site and enjoy a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The cemetery grounds, about the size of a small soccer field, have long been neglected and left to ruin. At one time, it was all quite elaborate and treasured, but now many of the gravestones have cracked or collapsed. The dilapidated white picket fence is no longer white and is made redundant by a chain-link enclosure. Even the jade plants have turned black. Only two palm trees enliven the landscape.
Still, the fading headstones provide endearing tidbits about the beloved pets buried there, most of whom came from military families in the 1950s and 1960s. There is the stone that simply reads, “Sarge,” and another that’s inscribed, “A G.I. Pet, he did his time.” There’s the parakeet referred to as “Our Knucklehead,” and the dog named “Sheesa-nut.”
On one grave, the epitaph states, “George accepted us people.” There are some stones with big red hearts to mark the unknown. And then there’s the grave of “Bali Boring,” a toy poodle belonging to “Major and Mrs. Boring.”
The cemetery is also home to at least one living feline resident—a black cat, clearly feral, itching and licking, and no doubt content in this gopher heaven.
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