Portrait by Bob Bertram
There’s no escaping the sadness of loss, but there are a million ways to memorialize your cat or dog. Some cemeteries are allowing pets to be buried in the family plot—Bellefontaine Cemetery allows a pet’s ashes to be interred in his human’s casket, and is looking into a separate burial area for pets. Others (Calvary Cemetery and Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, for example) most definitely will not allow animals in any form. But according to the International Association of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories, roughly 25 percent of the nation’s pet cemeteries now allow human burials. And the U.K. has eco-burial parks where humans and their animals can be interred together.
Other memorials run the gamut—from making a quilt of your dog’s bandannas to establishing a trust fund in your cat’s name at his favorite clinic to help others pay for expensive surgeries. Americans are catching up with the Brits in pet portraiture, too. Here’s a sampling of local painters and sculptors who specialize in animal portraits.
• Bob Bertram, 636-256-7817, bertramgallery.com.
• Don Frank, 314-961-8874, djfportraits.com.
• Joy Kroeger Beckner, 636-532-3216, joybeckner.com.
• Barbara Martin Smith, 314-961-6047, watercolorsmith.com.
• Curt Parker, 636-458-5778, curtparkeranimalart.com.
Source: American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog database
