Deep-Sixed in the Heart of Texas

Following a funeral at the King David Memorial Sanctuary in Falls Church, Virginia, I stumbled--just  down the road--onto a second cemetery that also sports an Old Testament theme—The Noah’s Ark Pet Cemetery. What a comfort, I thought, to receive perpetual care one day in  the general vicinity of my significant other, Bootsie the Cat.

While that prospect bodes well for Bootsie and me,  I’ve discovered that in the great state of Texas our options would be better still. Last May, the Texas Banking Commission, which regulates funerals and cemeteries [does that make sense to you?], deep-sixed burials of pets in cemeteries for homo sapiens. But Texas still welcomes human burials alongside animals in pet cemeteries. For folks like Ken Martin
in the clip below, that's the cat's pajamas. [APOLOGIES FROM WIG & PEN--THE VIDEO LIKE ITS SUBJECTS HAS DEPARTED (HOPEFULLY) FOR A BETTER PLACE.]

And there is more. As the clip reveals, some Texans are also opting for their own burials--sans Bootsie---in pet cemeteries. The cost of room and board, notes the clip, beats its counterpart in people cemeteries by a mile. So why not think outside the box?

Because in Texas, times remain tough—not only for the 6.8% unemployed, but for what author and NY Times reporter  Gail Collins describes in her book,  As Texas Goes . . . , as the state’s “long-standing first-place ranking for jobs at or below minimum wage." But Texas is looking up. "In 2011, " she writes, "it finally managed a tie with Mississippi for the honor.”

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