hi frank,
i'll be following this endeavor with great interest. might just call for a road trip to peoria to get my hands dirty!

nina ;)

I hope hope you reach all your dreams and wishes for this beautiful place. It needs to be protected. Also, thank you for your work with the airlines' pet transportation.

I just made up a simple webpage with links to the letters I wrote to Delta Airlines and their lawyer after our very bad incident as well as a link to the PDF file letter written to the Secretary of Transportation from the Senate on our behalf as well as a link to a PDF file of the petition that has been filed with the DOT by The Animal Defense League.

We started this just this past winter after Delta Airlines did some pretty bad things to us.

Thank you for both ... I was sad to read all of what you posted about your puppy. What a bunch of lies and back-pedaling ...

Good luck witht he cemetary and will find you on Facebook to follow your progress.

I wish you both all the best for all you are doing for all the fur babies and their humans. Big hugs from NY..
Christine

What a great project! Lots of work I'm sure, but a wonderful thing for you and your partner to support. Thanks for sharing!

Congratulations on your new purchase. But the thing that amazes me, is your horrible incident with Delta. I can't imagine how awful the loss of the puppy was, but to have added all the lies and shabby treatment - I can't understand how people like this can live with themselves. How can people lie and cover up and not take responsibility for their actions? I am in awe of your commitment to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else. It is apparent that many companies today have no moral scruples. No wonder we have to legislate everything to death! Here in Ohio we have very little teeth in our laws concerning cruelty to animals. I wish you all the best in your quest to make Delta take responsibility for their actions and I look forward to following this through our Congress and I hope you are successful in getting the changes made. Good luck and again I am sorry for your loss.

The story just made todays local newspaper. Here is a link below to it.

Now all of the people that have been worried about their pets that are buried there no longer have to worry.

nice article...way to go, guys!! looking forward to visiting pet haven in a few weeks, frank. :)

Nice article. It's a really nice thing to do.

It has been suggested by many people that we should do a title search on the property so today I called my friend that is the County Clerk and explained the situation. The Recorder of Deeds happened to be sitting in his office so they told me what to do. I went to the court house and started with the old books that show everything starting in the late 1800's from the time the land was subdivided and it only had transfers of the deed. I then checked the computer which has everything since the late 1980's and the only two things that have been and still are on the property are two liens by the city for rubbish removal for $110.00 & $135.00. Both had been put on the property within the last two years after the husband passed away and the wife left the property uncared for. They then sent me to City Hall where I spoke to the legal department. Both ladies there were really nice and thanked me for what we are doing with the cemetery. The total owed to have the liens removed is just under $350.00 so that is no big deal. It could have been worse. A title search would have cost $500.00 to find out that $350.00 is owed. It only took me about an hour total to find everything out on my own. Everyone I have spoken to has been very helpful.

The property has never been issued an address so I called zoning and they transfered me to public works. They are going to go check out the property and then will email me an address for the place. Our insurance guy needs to have it for the liability insurance. I will be glad when all of the legal stuff is finished and I can get busy giving the place a much overdue grooming.

A local man contacted us yesterday after reading the story in the paper and offered to donate a bunch of hostas and daylillies. He is not an animal lover but he likes what we are doing for others.

An update of the goings on with Pet Haven.

We ordered the riding mower from Sears once they went on sale. It gets delivered on the 18th along with a garden cart and mulching kit for it. We bought a trailer to haul the mower from Harbor Freight tools that I have assembled and reinforced so it will last much longer. This week I planted the hundreds of tulips at the entrance to the cemetery.

The trailer with pics of the mower and cart inset.

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The area I planted the tulips.

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After I dug the hole shaped like a rainbow.

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Me leaning on the shovel while digging the hole.

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Tulip bulbs in the hole. They will be in continuous bloom from early to late spring.

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This area had long ago been a dumping ground for coal cinders. I built a screen using hardware cloth to sift out the cinders.

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This shows the pile of cinders left from the sifting going around the inside of the rainbow.

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We should be taking possession of the deed to the property within the next two weeks. The 90 days stated in the contract that we signed is quickly approaching.

well, frankles, duh me! not until you mentioned it did i see you dug in the shape of a rainbow. love it! that is going to be absolutely stunning. i feel a road trip coming on next spring, i have GOT to see that rainbow in bloom!

Yes, what a fun project. A lot of work, but clearly you are enjoying it. I can't wait to see pictures of the flowers in the spring! What a lovely thing to do.

This is one of the nicest things I have heard about in a long time. Thank you for doing this and making things right.

That is so cool Frank & Jim. Good for you.

What a tremendous undertaking, and what an impact you are making. The rainbow of tulips is going to be beautiful. Are you going to somehow make the actual bridge into a rainbow?

With all the crazy crap in this world....I just want to say thank-you for your kindness to do this undertaking. I just lost my yellow lab on Oct.11, 2010....he was a month shy of 14 years of age....and if I was in your area I would love to have had the opportunity to have his earthly body in your pet cemetary. Thanks so much for taking your money and resources to take on this endeavor for no monetary gain at all. I think that is such a great thing and reinforces my belief that there are good people in this world and I so appreciate your kindness. Thanks again.

Duane

We won't be able to bury any other pets in Pet Haven because the majority of the paperwork has been lost so we don't know who is burried where. There are many unmarked graves as well as many hundreds of graves with markers. We knew from the start that we wouldn't be able to sell any spaces there. We just want to protect it.

The deed to the property came in the mail today. It was marked as being exempt from sales tax for the transaction and also that we are not responsible for property taxes until 2011.

The mower, cart and mulching kit were delivered last night. The mower just barely fits on the trailer. There is less than an inch of clearance on each side of the cutting deck.

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Jim was thinking about a rainbow on the bridge but I am not sure what. We do plan on having a wrought iron archway made for the entrance with the name Pet Haven on it in steel that will span between two of the four concrete pillars at the front. The name of the place isn't anywhere. Currently there is just the small painted wood sign that says pet cemetery.