Original subtitles

Inspiration of the pet cemetery business is...

a little story that probably leads me back many years.

I was born in the state of North Dakota...

county of Barnes, city of Valley City.

I was there for several years...

being born in 1930, and then the World War II started...

in 1941, when I went to the farm.

On the farm, I had my own pet collie...

which worked with me and was beside me.

No matter what I did and where I'd go...

my pet collie was with me.

One, One afternoon...

we came back from hauling bundles -

“thrashing,” the old words going -

and an old Model A came up the road...

and struck my collie and killed him.

I never did catch him...

but I grabbed my collie...

and I held him in my arms until he died.

And I pulled one little acre of land...

right behind the house...

I'd say a quarter mile away.

Overlooked the,

the prairie to the north...

which was really a beautiful - had the lake site in the back -

and I picked that as the cemetery for my own collie.

Right across the street from where I lived In Los Altos...

was the most beautiful piece of land...

as far as I was concerned, in the whole valley.

And boy, I knew what to do with it:

make that into a pet cemetery.

I thought, “This is gonna be my project of fife.

f found the land. I found the need. ”

Something the old-timers used to tell me years age:

“To be a success in this world or this life...

find a need and fill it. ”

And hay, I found a need, and I wanted to fulfill this more than anything in the -

anything I ever did in my whole life, I wanted to fulfill this dream.

And there is where we started our work.

Planning, development...

and getting the people interested, working with -

I worked with Carnation Pet Food Company...

I worked with Safeway stores...

I worked with Lucky stores.

Several. Several.

I remember talking to Dick Yee with Dick's Supermarkets...

and asking him if I could come and work in his pet food section...

and just hand out my cards and talk to the people...

about having a pet cemetery.

I went to grooming shops. I went to the veterinarians.

And the interest I got was just phenomenal.

It was just great.

So then I had to get some more interested people...

in the idea of it, 'cause we needed the financing.

Floyd...

is a very heartwarming individual...

and a man that likes to do a lot for everybody.

He'd happened to come into the office one day...

and him and I got to talking.

His real name, I think, is Floyd, but we always called him Mac.

And Mac, very surprisingly, said to me that...

something he'd always wanted to do was...

put a pet cemetery together.

So I told him, “Gee, Mac, that's amazing...

because we've just been thinking about the same thing ourselves...

and maybe we can put it together...

you know, under one group." So he said, “Wonderful?

So I was made aware of this property...

that is in Los Altos on Foothill and Highway 280...

and we felt that that would make a great place for a pet cemetery...

because it had tremendous visual ability...

and the thousands of cars that went past 280.

And the property leaned in other directions as well.

h' was a marvelous location for a restaurant or a motel."...

or various and sundry things.

We found that people by the name of Danton...

owned the property...

and we approached them and asked them what they thought of it.

There was a meeting held at Mr. McClure's house...

which I attended.

I was a little late...

but during the meeting...

Mr. Dunton had expressed...

his wishes, desires, and needs to Mr. McClure...

and emphasizing very, very strongly...

“Mac, you have nothing to worry about.

I'm a minister of this particular church.

You can trust me. You can trust me. You can trust me.

I'm a minister. We will have a pet cemetery.

It'll be a success, and you and I will put it together.

We'll do it, we'll have it, just you and I."

It was sort of a “kismet" idea.

So we went to work on the pet cemetery...

and...

the ugly crisis...

which we used as our basis -

and this was no,

nothing against the SPCA of Santa Clara County.

It was nothing against the animal control officer...

of Santa Clara County.

But the idea that we needed the concept...

and,

for the people that loved their pets...

and needed a place for 'em.

Not the garbage pit, not the garbage can...

and a place to bulldoze 'em into the ground...

'cause we have more love and desire for Mother Nature's little pets.

God only gave us these pets...

to be our fellowship...

our desire and our will...

and what have we got to give them in return?

Not to be put into a garbage pail or a dump ground...

but our last good-bye...

for the things they gave us.

Rendering is one of the oldest industries.

It dates back to the time of the Egyptians.

They can trace it back this far, rendering.

In the Bible, way back in the Old Testament...

the guy cut off the sheepskin and put it over him.

Put the lamb fat on him to keep him warm.

It could be the oldest industry in the world.

It could be. ifs possible.

When the public got concerned about recycling...

that's when the rendering industry...

started to blossom out, so to speak, and say...

“Hey, we've been recycling for 500 years here.

Take a look at us. We are recycling.

We're doing what everybody wants us to do."

That's when we started to come forward.

Before that, nobody talked about the rendering industry.

That's why it was the invisible industry. Nobody ever mentioned it.

On the quiet side. “What those guys do out there -

They boil all this stuff in pots.

It stinks."

What is a rendering company?

A rendering company.

And my mind pretty near exploded...

with the thought and the remembrance...

of a very bad nightmare.

A dream of hell.

And it took me back to this rendering company in North Dakota...

where all the little pets at that time, when they died...

a truck would come out, and a big old driver would come...

and grab your pet and throw him in the back of this truck...

and take him to what I called “the boiler chambers.”

it's controversial. In other words, I -

You know, we stay low-key.

We don't want people to know we're bringing in animals...

and reprocessing animal by-products.

Some people get nauseated by the thought.

They get nauseated by it. You know that?

It actually nausea- I've had people ask me -

I've been at a dinner party...

and been sitting down at a dinner table...

and somebody will say, “What do you do?”

And I say, “I'm in the tallow business."

And somebody will say, “Jeez, don't bring that up right now.

Wait till after dinner, when we all break up."

In other words, “We don't want to talk about what you do, Mike.

It makes us sick.” Why? I don't know, but it does.

People say that all the time.

We called it back home a “glue factory."

They don't waste nothing.

They take the meat and strip it...

and they take the bones and boil them...

and cook them and make some kind of a meal out of 'em.

They don't waste nothing.

Not even the toenails on the animal or anything.

And the smell that came from it.

I walked in there one day as a child...

and I seen all these animals laying there.

Being a 4-H man and an animal lover and -

I just thought, “Boy, being in hell. Here I am.

I'm sitting in the floors of hell right now.”

I furnished the car - or the station wagon -

and Mac furnished some furniture and his time...

and his promotion skills.

And Joe...

also furniture and some labor.

We both dug the first few graves.

And I made some of the caskets...

and Joe would also go around and pick them up.

He'd go around and pick up the pets to be prepared.

Burying the pets was a very, very difficult task.

Mr. McClure...

was physically handicapped.

He couldn't. no way...

do any physical labor whatsoever.

And my having full-time employment...

it was mostly done in the evening.

A gentleman came to my door...

and the gentleman was a huge man.

I'd say about 6'2”...

a large -

He's the type - more like you'd say...

he's more the Hercules type.

And he asked me, “Are you Floyd McClure?"

And I said, “Yes, sir."

He says, “Do you have the pet cemetery across the street?"

My house is right across the street from the cemetery.

I said, “Yes, sir.” And he started crying.

I thought - I asked him, “What's wrong?"

He says, “Last night my dog died."

And he says...

“I wanted to bury him this morning."

His family was home, and they were gonna go to church.

But he had him completely wrapped in -

like a mummy, pretty near.

I would then...

get the pet out of his car...

lay him out in the driveway...

and proceed to clean him up...

brush him out, make him as presentable...

as possible under the circumstances.

We had all kinds of animals. Every type of animal.

We had snakes, we had rats...

we had monkeys, we had chickens...

we had hamsters, we had mice.

Seen a few. Rodents of all types.

And we had -

Of course, dogs, cats...

were our main pets.

But it doesn't make any difference what type of animal.

If that animal, you love it...

and you want to give it a proper burial, that's your business.

You bury that pet 'cause you love it.

You could have...

an idea that all animals should be buried...

but if you live over here, or five or 10 miles away...

and you have a horse, and that horse dies on a Saturday...

and it's 102 degrees, and you can't get anybody to bury it...

you're going to get a hold of the rendering company real fast.

'Cause you want that horse out of there, like, now.

See?

I remember one young lad there that -

He had a pet lamb, and his lamb died...

and right away his dad picked up the phone.

This is a 4-H animal...

that he'd taken from birth and just loved this animal.

And right away, his father...

had grabbed the phone -

and back in North Dakota, very few people had phones...

but at this particular farm, they had a phone.

He called the rendering service outside of Valley City...

and asked them to come and pick up the animal.

I've had people call that have an animal...

and they'll want us to bury it, and we don't bury animals.

And they're crying. People are very emotional about-

That's why it's a controversial thing.

That's why I don't like to break away and get into the individual things.

But you take a guy who loses his pet horse.

I mean, to some people, you know...

it's like losing their son or their daughter.

I mean it. That's no kidding.

They're really chilled up bad. Heavy. it's heavy.

You get some real moaners on the phone. They're crying, and -

This young lad, boy, he was so upset...

he went out and jumped on his pony...

and rode clear over to our place...

and told me that his pet had died...

and wanted to know if he could...

bury his pet with my collie out there.

I said, “Well, sure."

So we hooked up a team of horses...

and headed to his place to beat the rendering truck.

And we did. We got there and got the pet on the wagon...

and got him back over to the farm...

and...

I guess we beat the rendering truck by two hours or something.

We had a little altar set up in the office...

with some artificial flowers...

and Mr. McClure would light the candles...

and be ready to receive...

the mourning owners of the pet.

The mother was uptown shopping...

and the kids were home.

I'm not talking about just small children.

I'm talking about kids that are teenage children.

And the mother had given 'em specific chores to do.

One was, the girl was to wash and dry the clothes.

One was to wash, and the other was to take the clothes...

out of the washer and put it in the dryer.

So anyway, the job was done.

The girl threw the clothes in the dryer and slammed the dryer door shut...

and walked back to the kitchen.

And as I understand this now...

she heard some meowing...

and frightening screams of the cat.

They were looking for the cat and couldn't find the cat.

All of a sudden, they seen in the dryer-

They heard it in the dryer, and they opened the dryer door...

and the cat was in the dryer.

The little cat suffered a broken neck.

I guess they'd called out the fire department...

and they tried to revive the cat.

The cat did pass on.

The love that people have for their pets...

is really tremendous.

It's something that is very, very difficult to explain.

On several occasions, I've seen it myself...

where we were burying a pet...

where the whole cemetery would be at the gravesite...

and the children...

and the mother and the father would really break down...

and actually cry.

The little services...

that we give out there at the cemetery...

we bring out pretty much that...

“Here before us lies little Toby.

Little Toby was put on this earth for two reasons:

to love and be loved.

And today we're standing here saying good-bye to little Toby...

who was the Smiths' beloved little friend.

And now we are going to give you back...

little Toby, to Mother Nature.”

We had a gal here -

I had a gal hired here -

This'll show you what you're up against.

She never went in the plant. She never left this office.

You don't see anything from this plant. Yeah, these trucks come in...

but you don't see too much, right?

And she didn't see anything. But she left.

She quit working here because it bothered her mind.

The mere fact of what we did bothered her mind.

And she never saw a damn thing or smelled anything.

This is one thing...

that really bothered me a lot...

that really got into my heart...

was knowing not only that animals are being treated...

in such a violent way after death...

in this rendering company...

by being tore apart, and every scrap of their body...

being used in one way or another...

but the smell and stuff was so terrific.

We'd even sit down in the evening time to our meal...

and the only thing that hit your nostrils...

wasn't that good piece of meat you were about to eat...

or the vegetable...

or the nice dessert that's put on your table...

but you first had to grab...

the wine glass off the table and take a whiff of that to get the smell...

of the rendering company out of your nostrils before you could eat.

You know John Ascuaga's Nugget up there?

They lost one of those elephants one time.

Jeez, they didn't know what the hell to do with it.

We got it, and somebody made the statement...

“Hey, that thing went to the rendering company."

We had so many phone calls...

and we actually had to deny we had that animal.

We told 'em we took it to a pet cemetery and buried it.

Because people just didn't want to get-

People got chilled up. “What happened to that animal?

What happened to that elephant? Where's the elephant?"

Every once in a while, they'll lose a giraffe at the zoo...

or they'll lose Big Bertha, or they'll lose...

Joe Bear or whatever his name is...

and people say, “Hey, what's going on here?

We'd better bury this and get a plot and everything," see?

So we got a standing deal with the zoo.

They don't tell 'em where the animal went.

'Cause they don't want to be in the burying business.

When I came here...

and seen this ugly crisis...

these gas chambers that they got built down here...

and these pets half dead going into the dump grounds...

and the bulldozer going over the top of 'em...

and leaving 'em half alive in the garbage dumps...

brought me back to that, and I thought, “Boy, we're going to beat this.”

And this is the pan of the inspiration...

of getting our little pets...

out of these places and into a cemetery...

something that...

we can be proud of, of saying...

“My little pet has did his chore here...

that God has sent him to us to do a chore:

love and be loved and serve his master."

And boy, these little pets have did that.

And not let 'em go into the basis of the living hell.

Like I said before, “Death is for the living...

and not for the dead."

Sing. Sing, Babe.

Come on. Come on.

“I want my mama."

So sleepy. N'

“I want my mom."

“I want my mom." Come on.

“I want my mom." “I want my mama."

Come on. “I want my mama."

Attaboy.

“I want my mama."

“I want my mama."

Are you sleepy? We'll sing loud.

How can I say how you miss them...

and how you wake at night...

and feel around for her...

hoping she's all right, and then shes not even there.

It's, It's-it's heartbreaking.

And then you remember that she is gone...

but you get to thinking where she is...

and you know where she is, and you're happy where she is...

and the next day you go out and take flowers...

and maybe meditate a little bit and think of...

how often, maybe, you cried into her fur.

People like people because they like one another.

And people don't trust one another thoroughly...

like an animal and a human being.

I can know you very well...

but when I turn my back, I don't know you. Not truly.

But my little dog -

I can turn my back on my little dog, and I know he's back there.

He's my little friend. He's not gonna jump on...

or bite me or anything like that.

But human beings cannot be this way.

We didn't get an agreement - which is our fault -

in writing.

And it just kept getting involved and more involved and...

since there was no final agreement, why, then we started...

to differ on ideas and get in a few arguments.

A pet cemetery business is not a fast-buck scheme.

It's not a suede-shoe game.

It's a good, solid business enterprise.

And in order to have this concept...

it has to be in your heart, not in your billfold.

And these are the type of people I wanted in business with me...

in the pet cemetery concept.

The reason, unfortunately...

that we didn't continue on with the entire development...

of the pet cemetery was...

we couldn't actually work it out with our investors...

that we could project exactly what the income would be for it...

because we had no way of projecting the amount of people...

that would want to put their pets into a cemetery...

even though we felt that there was a great need for it.

So after several weeks and several months, we,

we decided that...

it would be better to turn it back to the original owners...

which was Mr. Dunton and his family.

I was told that the Duntons...

were trying to get themselves involved in some sort of gold venture...

or exporting of dead animals...

from the United States to Mexico for some university in Mexico...

to do some exploration type of work on the animals.

Mr. Robert Dunton had convinced Mrs. Ken Dunton...

to have her child born in Mexico...

so he would be a Mexican citizen, and under those pretenses...

he could have a business in Mexico and control it.

Mr. Dunton came back into town...

and then he decided at that time that...

“Well, maybe this is just a great thing.”

I can't speak for this man's mind...

but the only thing I thought at the time was the way they decided...

I should open one gravesite...

and put several pets in the one grave and then close it.

To me, that only spelled one thing:

“Let's get all the bucks we can out of this."

Mac called me and says...

“We can't come to a final agreement...

and I got put out today."

He says, “The attorney's advice would be...

to get all those pets over on the legal side...

and vamoose."

So that's what we did.

Mrs. Billingsley came out to the cemetery...

and said that they had moved the stone on her animal.

I said, “How are they gonna get the animal out of the grave -

the casket out - if they don't move the stone?"

And she said she didn't want her animal moved.

She said, “You talk as though I didn't care about my animals...

like you did about yours."

I says, “That's the way it appears to me."

I asked her if she had signed a release...

and she said she had signed a release.

Then she said she hadn't, so I don't know.

I can't swear to that.

But I made up my mind I wasn't gonna fool with her.

She went down and talked to Mr. Robert Dunton...

and then I sat in the car waiting for his son.

I was supposed to sign the release to let my dog go.

Then I saw both of them look in my direction...

and start laughing, like it was just a big joke.

She isn't gonna cause me any trouble...

'cause I ain't gonna pay any attention to her.

She just wanted to be noticed. She just wanted to be Miss Big.

Here we've got all these other poor people that really needed help...

and she was just trying to be Miss Big...

and she didn't pay half as much as the rest of us did.

I don't know whether she really liked her animals or loved 'em...

or whether she was just trying to show off...

and make a big impression.

This was my idea, because anybody that would come...

whizzing up in a Cadillac with all of her furs on to a cemetery -

and you know when they're digging animals, ifs gonna be an odor there -

didn't have much upstairs.

'Cause I'll tell you, that was not the place to wear fur.

I think that something should be done...

so that it shall never happen again.

I think it was a horrible thing for us in this generation to have it happen.

And in a state like California...

to have something like that, I think it's inhumane.

I think Mac really wanted a pet cemetery...

and I think he had probably a great love for animals.

But unfortunately, ifs not that easy.

You just can't go out and start something like that, and build a chapel...

and pay $50,000 an acre for land...

and pay taxes...

and interest on the balance...

for 25 cents.

Impossible.

And the Duntons were not interested...

in that beautiful Garden of Eden...

that Mac had in his mind.

'Cause I really think he had it in his mind.

So as a total...

before it finally wound up and went to the final lawsuit...

why, I myself lost around $30,000..

And I'm not sure how much Joe has lost, but...

ifs in that neighborhood.

I suppose after you lose this kind of money...

you just keep working at it until you're a success at something.

I don't know.

So-

The only thing I'm guilty of...

is compassion.

And that's all.

If you want to put...

to what I was charged with...

in the courts...

the only thing they can charge me with is compassion...

because f put my heart...

over the dollar sign.

Ii wasn't the dollar I was after.

It was to take care of m y customers...

and my dedication...

to what! believed in.

Then, because of the way I proved my point...

by using my heart...

into fulfilling my obligation...

then I was condemned.

Then they write letters...

tell everybody lam no longer part of it...

which broke me...

not only financially...

a burden upon myself and everyone else -

t was not only broke...

but brokenhearted.

Fm raised on a farm.

We had chickens and pigs and cows...

and sheep and everything.

Bu! down here, I've been lost.

Now they've taken 'em all away from here up to the -

What is the name of that place up above here a little ways?

That town?

Commences with “B."

Blue Hill - It's Blue Hill Cemetery...

I think the name of it is.

Not too far. I guess about maybe 20 miles from here.

Little town there. Little place.

You know where it's at, that place.

But I was really surprised when I...

heard they were getting rid of the cemetery over here.

Gonna put in buildings or something over there.

Well. I know people have been very good to me, you know, 'round -

Well, they seen my condition. I guess they felt sorry for me.

But it's real, my condition is. It's not put on, that's for sure.

Boy, if I could only walk. If I could only get out...

drive my car.

I'd get another car. Yeah.

And my son, if he'd had only better to me.

After I bought him that car - He's got a nice car.

I bought it myself just a short time ago.

I don't know.

These kids. Sometimes the more you do for 'em -

He's my grandson, but I raised him from two years old.

And my husband always told me, he says...

“Mama, someday you're gonna be sorry.”

That was a car?

Was that that? Boy.

He says, “Someday you're gonna be sorry.”

You see how it happens, things?

I don't see him very often.

And he just got that car.

I didn't pay for all of it. I gave him $400.

Pretty good. His boss knows it.

Well, he's not working for that outfit now. He's changed.

He's gone back on his old job...

hauling sand.

No, not hauling sand. He's working in the office. That's right.

He took over the office job.

His boss told me that on the phone.

But you know, he should help me more.

He's all I got. He's the one that brought me up here...

and then put me here by myself among strangers.

It's terrible, if you stop and think of it.

I've been without so much when I first came up here.

It's just - You know, it's -

It's what half my trouble is -

from him not being home with me.

Didn't cost him nothing to stay here.

Every time he needed money, he'd always come...

“Mom, can I have this? Can I have that?”

But he never pays back.

I'm too good, too easy. That's what everybody tells me.

I quit now. I quit.

Now he's got the office job, I'm going after him.

I'm going after him good too.

If I have to...

go in a different way, he's gonna pay that money.

He's got the office job now, and he makes good money anyway.

And he has no kids. He is not married. “Never get married,” he says.

He was married once. They're divorced.

And,

Well, she tried to take him for the kid, but she didn't.

They went to court. It was somebody else's kid.

She's nothing but a tramp. I told him that.

He wouldn't listen to me.

I says, “I know what she is. Richard, please, listen to me."

No, he wouldn't listen. He knew all. He knew everything.

Big shot.

But he soon found out.

Now that's all over with.

I've been through so much, I don't know how I'm staying alive.

Really, for my age -

If you're young, it's different, but I've always said...

“I'm never gonna grow old."

I've always had that.

And people that I tell how old I am, they don't believe me.

Because people my age, as a rule, don't get around like I do.

Skippy had been dead quite a while, two or three years.

You know.

Yeah. I don'! want to think about it.

Everybody liked that dog around here.

You know, you miss your pets just like you do any of the family.

I don't know what happened to this last little kitty who was here.

All the cats have gone.

There's no cats around. There are no animals, no nothing.

I miss that little black kitten so much.

It was wonderful.

And all of a sudden, boom. No animals around.

Somebody in the neighborhood or something...

is doing away with them.

The thought of trying to bury 400 pets...

was pretty hard to accept at the outset.

However, we felt we had an obligation to pet owners...

because if we were not to take on this endeavor...

it would leave many pet owners with a sour taste...

and could set our industry back for a long time.

We are often asked, “Why is your business...

apparently successful where others have failed?"

And the only answer that I can give...

Is a very obvious one, and that is that...

we have tried to follow sound business practices...

where ifs quite obvious that other pet cemeteries...

that have now failed did not.

This cemetery will be in business...

50, 60, 70, or a hundred years from now.

Surely beyond the lifetime of anybody...

who ever buried a pet here.

And I think this is all that concerns the people...

that have buried their pets here.

When we decided to...

turn the property into a pet cemetery...

and we discussed a name...

and we just all agreed that we couldn't come up with a better one...

than Bubbling Well Pet Memorial Park...

which has a lovely sound.

The connotation is something living, bubbling...

a well...

with lovely, refreshing springwater.

And it has a meaning of life...

and, um...

purity and all of the good things...

that we all like to think about.

Most people don't know it, but we're in the middle of a pet explosion...

throughout not only the United States but throughout the world.

And this is brought about. ..

From the new pattern that has emerged in the last 10, 15 years...

in the family fife.

I would say that the Pill...

is probably largely more responsible...

for the pet explosion than any other single factor.

This is quite a surprise...

to a lot of people that don't understand the business...

and haven't done any background work...

but ifs very simple.

The old style was for the husband...

to earn the living, and the mother stayed at home.

Today we have a different pattern.

Today the husband and wife both work...

and they want to prepare themselves with a home."...

and some of the things they'd like to have before they start a family.

Well, this is just fine from a planning standpoint...

but nature can't be put aside.

So when the young mother comes home...

she has to have something to fondle...

something to mother, something to love.

She'll have a pet.

The rest of it, in the normal pattern. ..

Would be that the grandparents...

would have children -

grandchildren -

to take care of and to fondle and to help to rear...

and this would satisfy their need for love...

and giving of love and receiving.

But when this has been set aside for five, six, seven, or eight years...

what do they do?

They get a pet. Now we're talking about both sides of the family.

We're not talking about just one.

Now we have a three-way explosion.

Well, we're here to...

put Caesar in the ground today...

and I know that you've -

This is something that you've not looked forward to...

but I would just be interested to know...

how you picked Bubbling Well...

and just tell us a little about Caesar...

so that we can...

have as much personal feeling about this as you do...

because we're going to be Caesar's caretakers...

and take care of his plot from now on.

And although we can't know...

personal details about all the pets...

of all the people that come to Bubbling Well...

we have a great feeling for pets...

and we surely want to include Caesar in our pet family.

Cal, here's...

a little picture of Caesar here, and I think...

- Yes. - If you see that, you can understand...

why we wanted him buried in a good place like Bubbling Wells.

- You know, I feel like I know him. - Is that right'?

- That face and that smile. - He was quite some dog.

What was his pedigree again?

He was a mixture of Australian sheep and terrier.

- And terrier? - Yeah.

- Australian sheep. - As you can see with all that hair.

- Did he have a coat! Look at that face. - Isn't he beautiful?

I've never seen that kind of a mix.

And we get many, many different combinations.

One thing that we get and we see...

is it's the combinations -

it's the crossbreeding that produces seemingly the best pet.

- Right. - The purebreds are fine...

and a lot of people enjoy their relationship...

as much as others, but it seems that...

when we get a mix...

somehow it seems to bring out the best in all the breeds...

- and they make a better pet. - Right.

I don't know. This is most unusual.

Most unusual.

I just can say I've never seen anything like that.

He always had hair down over his eyes.

- That's from the sheep? - From the sheep in him.

- He never had trouble looking out'? - No, he found his way around good.

He got around. I'm glad you showed that to me.

- He always got around me pretty nice. - I'll bet he did.

I'll bet he did.

Our oldest son, who was in the insurance business...

back in Salt Lake City...

decided that the pressures in the insurance business...

were getting to him...

and he made a trip back home...

to just sort of look around the Bay Area...

to see what might be available.

And his mother...

as devious as she is, sort of got him on the hill...

and really sold him a bill of goods.

And the next thing we knew...

he had decided to bring his little family back to Napa.

Every young guy has an aspiration...

to pursue a very aggressive sales field.

So about the only thing I could think about was insurance.

So I started off as a salesman...

and worked my way up to a sales manager.

But all throughout that whole thing, I wasn't cognizant of it...

but I was actually using my strength and my youth to the height.

I was burning out.

I could not exceed 150 pounds...

no matter how much late.

There was so much...

mental work there, you know?

And I had, ultimately, no free time.

So I resigned my position...

and of course gave them plenty of warning and stuff“.

and decided to come back to California.

I have to say to myself, “What does it mean to me?

What does this mean to me?

And what is it going to mean to me?”

So I recognize this, and,

A couple of things when I was instructing in motivation...

back in Salt Lake City...

is that, you know, if we don't stop...

and ask ourselves a question once in a while...

to probe our subconscious or to probe our conscious -

I used to teach it. It's a plain, simple formula.

We reduced everything to a formula, memorized it...

and therefore we were able to repeat it constantly.

I used to call x? the R2/A2 formula -

recognize, relate, assimilate, and put into action.

Like, I could be driving down the freeway...

and see a 450SL, and I could say...

“Hey, I like that. What does that mean to me?

What will I have to do to get it? How can I do it?”

Then work for it and strive for it. It kind of makes life easy.

I think that's why a lot of people don't -

they get frustrated, they have emotional problems...

is that they don'! know how to cope with their mind.

There are three things that I've got to do...

and that if anybody wants to do to be successful is“.

to have the desire, the “want-to," you know?

Why do you go to work in the morning?

“Gee, why am I here?"

Because you want to. You know?

But that's obvious.

And then the next very important ingredient...

is something that a lot of people...

and a lot of businesses fail to delve into -

ifs the activity-knowledge.

It would be the equation...

to a mathematical problem.

It would be equal to...

the chemist's ability to...

emulsify chemicals properly.

The valences.

But the knowledge of it, the whole scope, everything in detail.

And then the third element would be the know-how or the experience.

I have the inspiration to action.

I don't have the activity-knowledge...

but I'm getting the know-how before the activity-knowledge.

As a matter of fact, I'm getting more know-how than activity-knowledge.

But they can be correlated together.

They can be overlapped.

Dan, our youngest son, graduated from Chico...

with a degree in business administration...

and he thought this entitled him...

to an executive position out in the world somewhere.

After many interviews, he found that it wasn't that easy.

So he agreed to come home and, with a lot of reluctance, to try this out...

to see how he and his lovely father would get along.

College is an interesting experience...

and I was kind of taken with it my first few years.

I would study eight, nine hours a night...

and really caught up in the idea of doing all this studying.

But towards the end of my college days...

I ended up partying more than I did actually studying.

But,

You know, I learned a lot. Not that I - I learned -

I took many classes, say, in mathematics...

business administration, marketing, and things like that.

And it's not like you - You're given things to learn.

However, you don't retain the knowledge that you learn.

It's the idea that you're applying your brain. You're exercising it.

That's the part where the education comes in, I think.

Something also that happened - it happens to everybody, I suppose -

I fell in love up in Chico...

and...

I think an important thing in falling in love:

Before you fall in love, you should have -

True love, I think, is experiencing many different types of loves...

and learning exactly what you want out of a relationship.

I spent about 2 112 years with a woman...

and...

I fell in and out of love and learned a lot of things.

“Nothing lasts forever'...

was something that hit home.

I think a broken heart...

is something that everybody should experience...

because it makes you appreciate...

any future experiences that you have.

You've felt the hurt...

so you can enjoy the positive aspects of love.

So I finished all those experiences...

and I came back here to the park. ..

And my father offered to take me on...

and teach me the business.

I knew we had many houses up here...

and I would have no prob/em having a place to live.

I lived in the chicken coop in the little house for a while.

Then I got this place...

which is a pretty nice place for just one person.

“The house on the hill" is what we call it.

And so I moved up here. I still haven 't completely moved up here.

I still have a lor of my stuff down in the chicken coop.

My dad initiated this whole program...

I would say approximately six years ago.

So therefore, he has the greater amount of knowledge.

He has the public relations...

with the veterinary doctors.

He knows them not only by name...

but also by their secretaries'...

and also their wives' names.

He has a vast amount of knowledge.

My brother Danny has been working in the park for about, three years.

Therefore, he has quite a bit of knowledge...

of procedures and public relations.

So therefore, my father is -

he's the focal point.

He trained my brother. He gave him the knowledge.

He taught him this route that Fm responsible for now.

I find it quite hard right now to -

you know, to go out on my daily task here at the park...

without consulting my brother...

or consulting my father.

One of the things in the insurance business that I always did...

that got me ahead, I suppose, is I was able to memorize quite well...

with hardly any effort.

And I have to literally memorize the streets...

and the localities of these veterinary clinics.

These clinics are literally speckled...

all over that southern peninsula area...

and I have to get on the freeway and go to this one...

and come back on to this one and pick up from where I left.

I have to memorize routes, know exactly where they are...

what road to take to get to it, to get back, to get to the next one.

Naturally, there's an element of fear that I have.

With our permalloy markers...

we have several different formats that the people can choose from...

and you can see some of the different formats right here.

Now, in some situations...

when the people don't have actual photographs...

they can sketch a picture...

right on to the alloy steel.

Now, probably the most popular type...

of marker that we have in a permalloy...

is what we call a vertical-type picture -

the reason being, a vertical-type picture...

they can place the photograph in a position...

where you're getting maximum amount of surface coverage...

with maximum amount of wordage usage.

I have to keep telling myself, “Jeez...

there's gonna be more parts to this thing.

There's going to have to be an advance selling program.”

I'd like to be selling in Los Angeles...

and getting the cemeteries there...

and starting another one in Los Angeles.

Maybe Seattle. A larger city...

where there are a lot of concentration of animals.

With our private burials, we have two systems of marking...

and the first is what we call a grid system.

And the way it works is, we have a rectangle...

with letters and then numbers.

In a vertical position, we put numbers...

and the numbers go from 1 to 17, and then we have the alphabet.

It's a cross situation, where an animal -

say, Bonnie -

would be 9-W.

What that would mean is that the people would go to Row 9...

then they'd go to

And where those two points crossed...

you would have the location.

This opportunity doesn't mean a damn thing to you...

unless you're willing...

to work hard...

to study, to be a student...

and to apply your experience...

and to do better constantly.

So I think that's what my father's done for many years.

And I know I've seen his successes.

He's read the same textbooks I have.

Danny is basically doing the same thing.

And this is what I have to do.

I have to learn to put this knowledge into reality.

The basic tenet of our church...

the Bubbling Well Church of Universal Love...

incorporated in January of 1977, is...

“The Church has as its tenets...

a belief in a supreme being...

who does not differentiate...

in bestowing his benevolence on all species of life...

whether of this earth...

or any form of life hereafter."

The thought occurred to me...

that any god, any supreme being...

that was indeed compassionate and concerned about people...

would surely be concerned about any living creature.

God is supposed to know when the sparrow falls...

when the lilies of the field bloom.

So surely at the gates of heaven...

an all-compassionate goo'...

or an all-compassionate supreme being is surely not going to say...

"Well, you're walking in on two legs. You can go in.

You're walking in on four legs.

We can? take you."

I don? believe this will happen.

Now, people come up, and there is a common bond.

At the church, we don't have formal services.

We're not trying to save any souls...

or collect money or anything like that.

It's just a - It's son of a church of love.

We do not have to go too far afield to make this conversion...

because...

we have our own chapel.

We have stained-glass windows. We even have a bell.

And we're usually talking in terms of death...

and talking in terms of hereafter.

Well, this is the very essence of any other religion.

So if in the hereafter there are no pets...

I don't think any of us that love our pets...

would really feel, maybe -

I can't say we wouldn't want to go...

but I really believe they'll all be there...

in the spirit with all of us.

The pet owners that we have talked to...

have embraced the idea...

and it has had a very dramatic effect on a lot of them.

It's brought them assurance, it makes sense...

and ifs not -

It's very hard to refute it, as a matter of fact...

because it makes sense.

You don't have to depend on a lot of...

mystical type of thinking.

It just makes sense.

And people at this time are looking for assurance.

They don't want pie in the sky. They don't want fairy tales.

They want assurance.

Trooper was the type of dog...

that didn't have other dogs to relate to.

He lived with adult human beings.

And having the inability to communicate...

like human beings do through conversation...

he did it with his mannerisms...

and his eyes and reception.

One of the things that you noticed with him...

is when we were sitting in a room, he would position himself...

and as each one of us spoke, the tone of their voices...

would direct his attention to that person.

And during the course of the conversation...

if the conversation was pleasant, he would react to that...

or if it was sharp, he'd react to that.

He also had a sense as to the subject of the conversation.

In particular, on Christmastime...

the discussion about gifts to various members of the family...

and there were certain things that we knew he would like...

as to doggy bones and little chewy things that he had.

Of course, we didn't conceive that he would be aware of our conversation...

yet we were relating to him, because as I say...

there was no one else he could talk and relate to except ourselves.

Christmas morning - this was just before his death -

we all came down to open our presents.

They were all laid out in various sections around the Christmas tree...

and we would hand each one of us a gift -

particularly with my mother-in-law, her being the elder of the family...

we'd bring her presents.

He lined himself up and couldn't wait and went right to the direction...

of where his packages were and started unwrapping them...

right there, and they were not laid out in the open.

He unwrapped his presents, just like sharing with all of us.

It's amazing that there are...

so many different aspects of this.

It's not just...

You know, an opening in the ground...

somebody prefers a casket or not...

and the ground is put back into the opening - no.

Sometimes the people like to come up...

and witness the actual burial of the animal.

Sometimes they don't. And we pick out a date...

that's convenient for them, and they come up.

And as far as preparation...

a hole has to be dug, prepared.

We have to make sure the hole is gonna fit the casket.

You don't want to make it too large. You're gonna waste space.

You don't want it too small because you can't get the thing in.

Mentally-wise, I don't worry about putting an animal down into an opening...

because if I don't do it, somebody else is gonna have to.

It's just mind over matter. You have to prepare yourself for it.

We pick up animals that are 150 pounds - greyhounds -

and they're very heavy.

We have to bring them in to our bodies...

to hoist them into the truck.

So it's mind over matter once again.

Sometimes they come in -

When we get them, their hair is matted."...

and they're very moist from being in a freezer where they're kept.

So they have to be combed and dried out a bit...

which isn't the most pleasant thing in the world...

but ifs not that bad, really.

After a while it becomes something you don't really -

doesn't really bother you at all.

Bu! I don't know what happens down there. I really don':

The moisture, the contraction...

the expansion of the ground...

of course, the insects, and so on and so forth.

There b another world down there, you know.

He'd go down on his front knees, and I knew something drastic -

He was just blacking out. He'd just black out.

Fall over and black out, just for a few seconds.

- Then he'd get back up again. - Ready to go strong.

We took him down to the vet's...

- and we had - - Tests.

Test after test. They couldn't find nothing.

- One day we took him to - - Back again to the -

back to the same vet, because this vet, he's darn good.

We like him a lot.

And he called us and said, “I found out what's wrong with York."

He says, the -

- “He has heartworms." - Heartworms.

I'm telling you, if I never tell anybody anything else again...

please watch your dogs for heartworm.

It's carried by mosquitoes...

just like your malaria, and you don't know -

We used to think we were free from it here, but we're not.

It was a Southern disease. But here in California, why, it's very prevalent.

I ask myself, “What does this mean to me?

What does this park mean to me? What does this opportunity mean to me?"

Well, it means a lot.

It means I'll be able to have something...

to work for for many years to come.

It will provide the things that I will need...

and you know...

the long line of the other things, events.

Phil has moved into the business. He's slowly learning it.

He's learning the route right now, and he'll be taking that over...

but at the same time, he's learning...

about the private burials, about handling the people...

because there's definitely things you have to know...

to be able to talk to the people here about their pets.

You have to see by example. You have to learn by example.

We're working together. We have our ups and downs.

He's a bit older than lam, so it provides some hardships...

because I'm telling him what to do, and he doesn't always like that.

He resents it at times.

So my father is in charge of the park.

He's “el presidento."

He's number one.

Danny, by virtue of seniority and knowledge...

is number two...

and I guess I would be the third person.

My father now...

is trying to work out of the business...

because he's getting on in years...

and he wants to do a little traveling before he passes on.

So he's letting up...

and he's letting me take over handling the people...

and he's staying pretty much in the background...

although I don't think he'll ever stay completely in the background...

because he's a fairly dominant person.

Then he came out of it, and he was perfectly normal...

and racing through Golden Gate Park along the ocean beach.

And then just as suddenly...

we took him over for a checkup...

to recheck the prior prognosis...

and they said they thought he was all right.

He came home on a Wednesday afternoon.”

and I recall he was so relieved to get out of that veterinarian office...

having been in there all day, he had a habit -

To me, I always got a kiss on the knee area...

and I recall that as probably the last time...

I remember him doing that.

And then just as suddenly as the kiss...

he seemed to go right down...

and we kept phoning the vets...

and they said not to worry, that they didn't like to eat...

on medication of this son, but to bring him in on Monday.

But before that happened, we ran him...

to the All Animal Emergency Hospital, and Dr. Benjamin there.

It was too late. He was gone by then.

He just passed away on the Sunday after.

But the main thing is for people who have dogs...

and they don't breed them...

the most intelligent thing I would recommend would be...

when the dog is about- I suppose the same for cats -

two or three years old, that is the time...

- to make a decision to have them - - Neutered.

You keep that idea of building this place up...

of fixing it up, and eventually it will be something...

that nothing else can compare with.

That idea keeps the whole thing together...

and, that -

that concept is what...

keeps us together, I think.

My dad used to tell me when I was a young kid -

I'd look at a job that had to be done...

and he'd say to me, “Nothing's impossible."

That always stuck in my craw. I couldn't believe it. “Nothing's impossible."

I kind of learned, when I got in the insurance business...

that everything is possible.

You have to look at it with the right frame of mind.

And that's important: your mind.

There's a tendency to sit on your laurels...

and be somewhat complacent...

about small advances...

and small accomplishments.

Or even sometimes large accomplishments...

have a tendency to put you at ease.

However, this is a trap...

because we are not content...

with just having an ordinary...

nice or good pet cemetery.

Ours is going to be the finest.

We're not going to stop until ours...

is the finest in the country.

There'll be no finer when we're through.

When I'd hire a guy...

I'd bring him into my office...

and I'd specifically designed my office...

so I could display the maximum trophies...

on walls and stuff.

And I'd bring this guy in, who had probably been making...

maybe 9,000 a year or less.

I'd bring him into this office with nice furniture...

and he'd see these trophies and he'd - “jeez,” you know.

You know, they were taken away.

It's kind of like flaunting it, I guess.

To hire him, all I did was tell stories...

about what each trophy meant to me and what it could mean to him...

and if he'd like to increase his income and his future.

The names of our gardens were created...

by words...

that seemed to depict...

the qualities of pets, like our Garden of Companionship.

A pet is a companion.

The Garden of Devotion.

Almost all pets are devoted to their masters.

The Garden of the Gentle Giants, again, is descriptive.

Kitty Curve.

The Reserve Garden is set aside and reserved for smaller pets.

The Garden of Memory...

is set aside because it will bring...

happy memories in the future, we hope.

We had a Valentines Day party for all the wives.

I think there was about six of us. I told the guys to come over.

“We're gonna have a cake...

and we're gonna celebrate Valentine's Day."

So we had a big cake, and all the wives came over...

and I had this motivational meeting planned.

They didn't know exactly what was going on.

And I had all these signs on the wall...

and I had made up a chart, a commitment chart.

Anyway, we had the cake...

and we had the girls talk, and we read the material...

the motivational material for prizes and trophies...

to be won the subsequent week.

And we got the girls motivated.

And the girls got the guys motivated.

We created the Garden of Honor...

and in this garden, we will bury...

a Seeing Eye dog or a police dog...

killed in the line of duty...

at no cost...

if it's killed in the line of duty.

And for anybody else...

who wants to share this garden...

then we created a price...

which amounts to more than any other garden that we have.

I kind of think I'm motivated all the time...

because I have so many experiences of motivation...

and I understand it quite well.

One thing that...

this gentleman to my left...

always said, and it sticks in my brain all the time, is that...

"Emotions are not always subject to reason...

but they're always subject to action."

And we all have periods of inertia...

where we don'! want to get up and do things.

So I have to tell myself psychologically...

"It's gonna be a great day. I'm gonna have a great day today. "

I repeat it over and over and actually do the thing with that in mind.

I've been trying to teach it to my brother.

As a matter of fact, couple of months ago, I wrote him a letter.

I tried to write him a very motivational letter...

because at the time, he was very inspirationally dissatisfied.

I don't go out very much...

so what I do to pass the time...

aside from watching television, of course, is...

I would sit down and put these tracks down on tape...

and just play guitar.

It's something that gives me a lot of personal satisfaction.

I mean, with any type of a musical instrument...

you're never gonna be bored.

So much of the time, people say...

“What am I gonna do? There's nothing to do."

They're continually complaining.

But with a musical instrument, you can sit down...

and you can provide your own entertainment.

Even my kids - You know, I try to abstain...

from the word “not” and “can”? and “no”...

and stuff like that, which are very negative words...

and try to instill...

rather than physical punishment...

but just saying -

My youngest girl is 2 1/2 years old...

and it's very hard for her to understand...

the language, rationalize it.

So I sit her down when she's done something wrong and tell her...

“Good girls don't do this.

Good girls do things that make us happy."

We created our little lakes...

because we feel that this gives an atmosphere of tranquility...

and helps to break up...

the rows of little headstones...

which could be very monotonous...

and not too appealing.

In former years, I would write three and four songs a week...

and I've got a little notebook...

where I've got about probably 50 songs.

You know, you always have the dream...

in the back of your mind that someday...

these songs will be published, and you'll be famous.

But as you get older, you start realizing that maybe...

those are just what they were - dreams, nothing more.

But dreams are nice to have.

Something to look forward to, you know.

It gives you more satisfaction, something you can think about.

Our mind is like a computer. If our mind read...

or extracted a data line from it...

if you put in positive, you would get out positive.

If you put in negative, you get out negative.

So you have to understand that. Our mind is -

We can go into a negative pan and into a positive part...

and if you really want to get more involved, there's an in-between...

that people never get really negative, and people never really get positive.

They call it “the gray area."

But the mind reacts to suggestion.

And suggestion is merely...

an external force or an external thing...

that you perceive through your senses -

like your smell, your sight, your feeling.

You could even be smelling a big vat of spaghetti...

and it suggests to you that you're hungry.

So therefore, our strongest power...

that we have is in suggestion and the power of prayer.

That's the strongest power that we have.

Success is like a journey...

and when you finally achieve success in your given field...

the journeys over.

You have to look for another - something else to motivate you.

There was a famous doctor who was one of the first people...

to climb Mount Everest, and at the end...

he looked up at the mountain - The first time he tried, he failed.

And as he was coming dawn from the mountain, he looked at it...

and he said, “H! climb Mount Everest!'

He says, “Mountains don't grow, but men always will."

There's a principle of law that with every benefit, there's a burden...

and the responsibility that you have with a dog -

It's not just an inanimate object.

In our life today, we do focus...

a lot of our attention on material things...

such as automobiles, clothes...

trips, and things of that son...

and even objects - paintings and...

other kinds of things at home that you cherish.

Well, an animal, I think, much more so you cherish...

because he does respond to you.

He doesn't talk like a human being, but he is much more so...

than just an inanimate object, and I think therefore...

a responsibility that a person has with an animal...

you'll sense that when you have them...

'cause their love and affection comes to you.

And that love and affection, over a period of years...

becomes a pan of your life, and you just can't discard them...

to such a degree like you can...

a wrapper around some food and say...

“Well, it's finished and disappeared."

Of course, it is a very -

When a dog dies suddenly, like Trooper died...

the moment of decision came: “What do we do with him?”

I could often think of Trooper's face...

and I say, “Where are you gonna put me?"

There's something to life that, even when you discard something...

of an inanimate nature, you dispose of it...

with some kind of a reverence.

I got a stereo system aside from a recording system.

It's a Pioneer SX-1010...

and ifs a hundred watts per channel, which is very powerful.

And on some occasions...

say, late afternoon, when there's nobody up here at the park.-.

I'll take my speakers, and put 'em outside...

and turn it up.

You can hear it. It goes through the whole valley...

and you can hear it...

from miles away.

N I Electric Guitar Rock: Blaring I

I think we'll all be together again.

I think we're gonna live pretty much like we do here.

I want to be able to find my pets.

I don't want 'em dug up and scattered all over creation.

I want 'em right where I know where they are...

where it's like in the hunting fields like they've had in this life.

I believe we'll all be reunited.

I really do. I believe that from the bottom of my heart.

She's got me believing that now. I never believed in it, but-

Before, but I still do.

'Cause after all, there's your dog, your dog's dead.

But where's the thing that made it move?

It had to be something, didn't it?

There's your spirit. There it is.

I might be dead, but I'm not moving.

And you can't put that back in 'em.

But I can take the body where it'll be with it...

and lay it to rest for a beautiful thing...

and it can rest there or be right around there.

It'll stay close. it'll stay where he is, and I'll find it again.

I really will.

They'll be with us.

- I hope she's right. - I think I'm right.

In fact, I almost know I'm right.

- You'd bet on it? - Yeah, I'd bet a lot on it.

My assurance to the pet owner...

that they will be reunited with their pet...

at some time in the future...

maybe under different circumstances...

and in a different form.

As remote as this might be...

and as hard for them to visualize...

it still gives them a degree of hope.