While Sunland Memorial Park, 15826 N. Del Webb Blvd., Sun City opened in 1963, there were no plans for a place to bury family pets.

But Sun City’s growth was accompanied by more and more requests for pet burials. Finally, in 1992 plans were laid for a pet cemetery. The plan came to an abrupt halt, however, when the park’s attorney pointed out that there could be lawsuits over having animals buried as close as 60 feet from human graves.  The project was canceled, but interest had been aroused, and Sunland officials received petitions from some 4,000 people requesting a pet cemetery.

New plans were laid for the Sunland Pet Rest Cemetery — but at a considerably greater distance from human burials. It would be much larger, covering five acres with 15,000 spaces for pets, and would be the first pet cemetery in the Northwest Valley. 

When it officially opened in 1995, among the first to be buried were 400 pets from a pet cemetery in Tempe. At one time, it had been located in a seemingly remote location near the Salt River. Construction of the Red Mountain Freeway and a hotel brought new life to the Rio Salado area, causing the deceased pets to need a new home.

While dogs and cats are among the most usual animals buried in Pet Rest Cemetery, it also includes one turtle, a chicken, an iguana, gerbils and two small birds. A request to bury a horse was turned down, as was one to bury a husband and wife alongside their pet chimpanzee.

Perhaps the most famous burial in PRC is Grumpy Cat, an American Internet celebrity mixed breed cat. Her permanent grumpy facial appearance was caused by an underbite and feline dwarfism. Her real name was Tardar Sauce and she belonged to Tabatha Bundesen of Morristown. Born April 4, 2012 and died May 14, 2019, she traveled the world, even starring in her own Christmas film in 2014. Her death received coverage on CNN, in the New York Times and on the British Broadcasting Company, where she was remembered as “helping millions of people to smile.”

One section of Pet Rest Cemetery has a number of floral arrangements decorating graves. A closer look shows some 20 burials, each with a marker showing a photo of the deceased pet plus a short description. All are signed “Nancy & Dave.”

Nancy turned out to be Nancy Buczek, a veterinarian and owner of the Complete Pet Animal Hospital in Litchfield Park. She and her husband care for dogs brought in that no one wants, or near the end of life, and then see that they are remembered with a distinctive grave marker in the Pet Rest Cemetery. They also interred a pair of cockatiels that had come with Nancy when she moved to Arizona in 2000. One lived to 21 years old, the other to 25.

Greyhound racing was popular in Arizona for more than 70 years. While the dogs have a racing life of 2-3 years, they have a life expectancy of 12-14 years. As a result, there were far more dogs than people willing to adopt them. A memorial in the Pet Rest Cemetery honors the several hundred greyhounds found dumped in a Mesa orchard. Their left ears had been cut off to eliminate any attempt to identify them or the track from which they came. Sunland officials offered to accept, cremate and bury them beneath a donated memorial.

It’s no wonder Arizona finally made greyhound racing illegal in 2016.

Editor’s Note: Ed and Loretta Allen recently moved to Royal Oaks in Sun City. They have been active in the Del Webb Sun Cities Museum for many years.