‘Bantay,’ ‘Muning’ remembered at pet memorial in Quezon City

All Saints’ Day is not just for people anymore.

At the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) compound in Katipunan Valley, Loyola Heights, Quezon City, animal owners get to honor their departed beloved pets by offering them candles, flowers and in some cases, doggie treats.

A portion of the 5,000-square-meter compound has been converted into a cemetery (PAWS prefers to call it pet memorial) complete with a remembrance wall where one can have the name of a pet inscribed on a tile, along with a message, for a donation.

A woman who gave her name as Jennie said that she was there to visit the graves of “Malakas” and “Maganda,” her pet rabbits.

She added that she would usually bring orchids to place on the graves but this time, she took with her “Benny,” her pets’ one-year-old offspring.

“This is the only place I can think of burying them and I miss them so I brought their baby, too,” Jennie said in Filipino.

At the remembrance wall, there were three packs of doggie biscuits placed beside the tiles bearing the names of two dogs.

“The owners left those behind on Monday and they even called me up today to ask if the biscuits were still here. Our cats seem to be giving those biscuits the evil eye,” PAWS executive director Anna Cabrera said with a laugh.

The compound also houses an animal shelter which is home to dozens of cats and dogs.

On a nearby grave, someone had left a stuffed toy—an Angry Bird—to keep the dog buried there company.

On another grave, there was a piece of pandesal.

The PAWS compound has two mass burial sites where people who don’t have any space can bury their dead pets for a fee.

One of the old mass burial sites used to have tombstones but the number of animals buried on the plot has made it difficult for PAWS volunteers to walk around the area.

The foundation then decided to remove the tombstones and place these somewhere else.