CNN iReport

Asniéres sur Seine...just outside Paris...

40,000 animals including Rin Tin Tin are buried in a country-like, beautifully landscaped and maintained cemetery, known as The Cemetery of Dogs d'Asniéres sur Seine,  located at the edge of Paris along the River Seine.  The cemetery is more than 100 years old and is dedicated exclusively to animals... all sorts... KiKi a monkey, a race horse, a sheep, some birds, but mostly cats,  and dogs.

The cemetery is known to many people because it is the burial site of Rin Tin Tin, World War 1 hero and star of many Warner brother's films.  Few, if any, of his admirers or fans who watched his Hollywood movies or 1950's tv shows know the true story of Rin Tin Tin or his off-spring.  For a brief but fascinating history of this dog, born in France, served with the U.S.  army during WW 1, starred in Hollywood films and was finally buried in The Cemetery of Dogs in France, I refer you to...

http://www.rintintin.com/story.htm

Of course the cemetery is much more than Rin Tin Tin's story...it is the story of 40,000 pets whose human friends loved  and cared enough about them to create perhaps the most beautiful and least visited sites in the Paris area.

Pets continue to be buried here..people still visit the gravesites,  water the plants, bring flowers and shed many tears.   Cats roam freely,...dogs are permitted on leash.

The inscriptions on the gravestones are without exception poetic and moving...to many, cats and dogs were their closest and in some case, only friends.

photo #6...Rin Tin Tin's gravesite;

photo #8..Examine photo closely... a small child astride a Saint Bernard,...a memorial to Barry the Saint Bernard responsible for saving 40 people and who died in his effort to save #41.  No mention is made as  to what happened to the person.