For Pets, Owners, There's No Rest (Pet Cemetery Sold; Come Dig Up Your Pet!)

JSOnline ^ | July 10, 2009 | Jim Stingl

[Diana in Wisconsin]

When I last wrote about Thistlerose Pet Cemetery and Crematory in 2008, the owners and their lawyer were promising the so-called final resting grounds would not be disturbed, even though the property in Greendale was for sale.

Well, forget all that. Get the shovels back out.

In a notice displayed at Thistlerose, they're already referring to it as the "former" cemetery. The anticipated closing date for the sale is July 30.

"You have until July 24, 2009, to arrange for the removal of the remains of your pet and any memorial marker. If the remains and any marker are not removed by that date, they will be deemed to have been abandoned and will be removed, and not preserved, by the new owner," the notice says.

And guess who gets stuck paying for that removal?

I stopped at Thistlerose on Thursday and found perhaps half a dozen disturbed graves. One empty hole was flanked on either side by stones reading "Lady, forever in our hearts" and "Spanky, our boy, the chief. He owned us."

Thistlerose is best known as the burial spot of a dog owned by actress Jayne Mansfield. The Chihuahua named Gallina died in 1964 while Mansfield was in Milwaukee performing in a play.

The bronze marker has been removed by the cemetery owners to protect it from souvenir-seekers. No one from the late actress' family has come forward to claim the remains.

The cemetery owners' new lawyer, Thomas Glowacki of Madison, said someone over-promised last year when vowing the graves would never be disturbed. The plan then was to divide the parcel into two pieces and sell the cemetery portion to someone willing to maintain it.

Don't bother looking up what state statutes say about closing a pet cemetery. There isn't any such law, Glowacki said. He looked.

I'm picturing bulldozers in the coming weeks, and it ain't pretty.

"I'm guessing the same," said Re/Max agent Glenn Shong, who was involved in the sale. Both he and Glowacki said the buyer wanted to remain anonymous at the moment, and they would not say what is planned for the 1.8-acre parcel on the corner of S. 68th St. and W. Loomis Road.

"They're going to do something other than what's there," Shong said.

What's been there for the past half-century: a kennel operation, along with the pet cemetery and crematory, all run lovingly if loosely by Eleanor Jolly. She died in February 2008, and her descendants aren't interested in the business.

Suzanne Jenkin, Jolly's granddaughter, whose name is on the notice, wouldn't talk to me. Hey, I'm just trying to get the word out to dig now or never.

Jolly kept sketchy records of the operation in spiral notebooks, so efforts by Glowacki to send notices to cemetery customers from over the years have been hit-and-miss.

"Obviously, no one feels good about this," Glowacki said. "I have three cats in my backyard, so I'm not insensitive to this."

I've heard estimates that as many as 500 dogs and cats are buried at Thistlerose, along with one pet chicken. Glowacki said he thought it was closer to 250.

Barb Schumann of Greenfield paid $236.60 to bury her dachshund, Adolphe, at Thistlerose in 1973. Her late brother's dog, Susie, also was buried there.

Schumann was driving by recently and spotted the posted notices. She never received one in the mail.

With help from a friend who had experience exhuming human bodies for the police in New York, she dug up both graves last week and took the remains to her vet to be cremated. Someday, she's going to have the ashes of all her pets commingled with her own. "We're all going together," she said.

She's not angry, but she would never again pay to have an animal buried at a pet cemetery. What assurance is there that it would stay in business?

"I worried about it back then, and sure as hell, it happened," she said.

Rosemary Andrea's dog, Joy, died in 2004 and was one of the last burials at Thistlerose. After she received the closing notice, she wrote to Glowacki and told him she paid Jolly $1,420 to bury Joy.

"I believe Mrs. Jolly's heirs are responsible for relocating the animals at their expense before final settlement is made," the Menomonee Falls woman wrote on June 20. There was no reply.

Now, she's not sure what to do for her beloved German shepherd-and-collie mix. "She was a real loving dog. Everybody loved her," she said.

Jim Gerke of Milwaukee said his family has two dogs at Thistlerose. He might wind up moving them to his yard.

"I don't want to have them dumped in the garbage someplace," Gerke said. "We've been fooled. You don't rent a grave. You figure it's going to be there."

[Billywilly]

I had heard Jayne Mansfield never paid the bill to have her chihuahua buried at Thistlerose. If the pet owner doesn’t pay the bill, do they evict the animal?

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Her heirs paid it later; I guess they want whatever is left of a dog 50 years gone. Maybe a diamond-studded collar? ;)