Funeral For A…What?
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So, I was walking through the stately Ikegami Hongan-ji temple grounds this spring, and I saw this sign. I guess with the shrinking population and all, the number of regular funerals is going down, so they’re branching out into…pet funerals. Yes, for about $350, you can have a real priest chant real sutras over your beloved dog or cat or…wait a minute!
Okay, I can see how a rabbit might wriggle its way into your affections enough to deserve spending a couple hundred smackers on sending it into the next life. And maybe even the guinea pig, although that one is kind of a stretch. But…a parakeet? A fish? A GIANT BEETLE?
And that’s for the group rate (your beloved Fifi’s ashes interred in a sort of mass grave). If you want a dedicated funeral and burial niche for Miss Fluffington of Bigglesworth, it’ll set you back nearly a thou.
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When not pondering the inclusive pet hereafter, Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Tokyo
“A genuinely gripping crime thriller which wrong-foots and perplexes the reader throughout, drawing us in emotionally . . . Highly recommended.”
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When Detective Kenji Nakamura’s phone rings with the news that his mother’s death wasn’t an accident, his life begins to unravel…read more
