Minerva Gerodias offered candles and flowers at her pet cemetery before leaving for her hometown in Santander, South Cebu. (Minerva Gerodias’ Facebook photo)
As Cebu residents visit their departed loved ones in cemeteries today, a few also visit beloved pets who passed away.
In Talisay city, Minerva Gerodias, an assistant information officer at the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD) and a self-professed animal lover, has a pet cemetery in her backyard.
“I always offer candles and flowers for my fur babies,” said the working mother.
Even when the family was still living in Banawa, Cebu City, she would do the same ritual.
“I treat my pets like they were my own children,” she said.
Three of her pets are buried in a small garden in her new home in Baywalk Subdivision, Talisay City where the family moved in August.
She lives with her husband, one daughter, a nanny and a cousin.
In a well tended garden lies Chibi, a mini pinscher, and local cats Iya and Tyke, both pusang pinoys.
Chibi was Gerodias’ first purebred dog. He died in 2012 due to heart complications. Iya got sick last year.
Both pets died when Gerodias and her family were still renting a place in Banawa.
“I buried them in my garden in Banawa. When we moved to our new house in Talisay, I exhumed their bones and transferred them to my garden in Talisay. Tyke died a week before we moved in to our new house so I we decided to bury him there,” she said.
Gerodias said she rescued the stray cats from her daughter’s school where she saw kids playing with them as if they were stuffed toys. She asked the children if she could bring the kittens home instead.
Remembered
Before leaving for her hometown in Santander town last Friday for the traditional All Saints Day and All Souls Day visitation of family graves, Gerodias offered candles and flowers at her pet cemetery and posted a photo on her Facebook account.
“I believe they also deserve to be honored and remembered because they gave us happiness and unconditional love when they were still with us. And they are also God’s creation so I believe they also have souls,” she said.
At present, Gerodias’ household has five dogs and eight cats.
LONELY CEMETERY
The Cebu City veterinary office has its own animal cemetery in a small lot behind the Cebu city pound at the North Reclamation Area.
This is the final resting place of impounded dogs and cats that were euthanized for incurable ailments and old age.
City Veterinarian Dr. Pilar Romero said the area has served as their animal cemetery since 1995.
“It started during the time of Dr. Dela Cruz. We really wanted to handle the animals as humanely as possible. That’s why we have this area,” Romero said.
In the unfenced area along the road in Logarta Street, illegal settlers have started to build houses nearby. Garbage also gets dumped near it.
Pray over
Romero said they plan to fence the area in the near future.
Last Oct. 22, pound personnel buried some euthanized dogs there.
A hole is dug by the Department of Public Services (DPS) and excavated soil is used to cover the dead animals.
Romero said they inject the animals with chemicals and disinfect the remains to ensure that it doesn’t pollute the area.
There’s no sign or grave markers to identify the area.
But Romero said she and her staff always pray over the site when they bury dead animals.
“Even as I supervise the euthanasia of dogs, I would say a silent prayer. As a pet owner, I really get sad whenever we inject the drugs into the animals. Sometimes, I can’t sleep for days,” she said.