Finnish Pet Cemetery (Pic Heavy)

CatStina

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Finnish Pet Cemetery (Very Pic Heavy)

Last Summer, 2011, I visited family and look a couple of classes in Finland for 2.5 months. I mostly stayed with my grandparents and, being so happy to spend time with me, they took me to all sorts of places that I had never been on past visits. One of those places was a beautiful Pet Cemetery near their home on the outskirts of Helsinki. The thread about pet memorials reminded me of this beautiful and peaceful place in the quiet woods, so I thought I'd share with you some pictures.

Vocabulary:

Koira-Dog
Kissa-Cat
Rakas-Dear
Ystävä-Friend
Rakaus-Love
Enkeli-Angel

There are hundreds of graves:










MORE PHOTOS TO COME...
 
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CatStina

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This one had me in tears. It says 'Kisukulta.' Kisu means kitty or kitten. Kulta literally means gold but is used in the same way as honey, sweetie, etc. Then it says 'Kiitos Sinulle,' which means 'Thank you for you.' Very sweet. What had my eyes tearing up, though, was the fact that this sweet little boy died in 1994 (at the age of 18) and 17 years later, the owner still brings flowers and cleans the grave. She/he is so faithful to his/her faithful cat.



Mörri is pronounced like Murray. 'Rakas' means 'Dear,' 'Ystävä' means friend, and the suffix 'mme' means 'our.' So 'Rakas Ystävämme' means 'Our Dear Friend.'



This one is the dog's old "Beware of Dog" (Literally, "This guard I" or "I guard here") sign turned into a grave marker. The dog, Väpä, was a Karelian Bear Dog, a relatively popular Finnish breed originally bred to protect villages in the Karelia region (now part of Russia) from bears.

 

CatStina

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This woman cleaned off and decorated the grave of her GSD Rocco, who died in 2005, for almost 20 minutes while we were there.



Here is a cute one for Nappe-Michel, described as 'Piene Koiramme,' 'Our Little Dog.' It's from 1978.


'Laivakoira' means 'Boat Dog'


'Perhoskoira' means 'Butterfly Dog' (Papillon)


I think this grave is beautiful.


So is this one for Gusse the cat.


A cute one for Erkki the cat:


Here is a cute and unique one for Elli the cat:



EVEN MORE...
 

CatStina

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This one is for a hedgehog and a tit mouse:




Some of the graves are overgrown, which makes me a bit sad.




One family even brought their current dog with them, though they didn't bring him/her inside the fence:
 

CatStina

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If I am able, I might get a plot for the pets in this cemetery and make the marker like the 'Our Faithful Friends' plot:
 

~Jessie~

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Thanks so much for sharing these! Pet cemeteries (cemeteries in general) have always interested me.

That's so touching that some of the owners still tend to the graves and bring flowers.

When we were in Ireland, we visited Powerscourt Gardens. The biggest pet cemetary in Ireland (private gardens) is located there.

http://www.powerscourt.ie/powerscourt-gardens/pets-cemetery



And when I was little, I used to go here with my dad:

http://www.angelview.com/

It was such a massive, beautiful pet cemetery. I liked to bring paper and pencils to do stone rubbings.
 

HayleyMarie

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That is so very beautiful. This spring/summer when the snow melts I plan on going up to Mitsus grave and make it super pretty. Tyler did carve a wooden grave stone, put I would like too put something more permanent up.
 

chaospony

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#10
That looks like such a beautiful place.
Those pictures of the carefully tended graves after so long brought tears to my eyes.
Thanks for sharing the pics.
 

SaraB

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I love all these pictures, what a great photo opportunity. I wish we had something like this here. The guard dog one is my favorite.
 

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