The famous furred

A peaceful little spot in LA is the final resting place for the pets of some of Hollywood's biggest names.

- COLIN HOGG

Barking mad is a phrase that might spring to mind if you should ever pursue morbid tourism to its kitschy limits and seek out the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park. It's a very contained sort of name for a place that really is overflowing with occupants, some of them formerly famous. In a Hollywood sort of way, of course, this being movie-mad Los Angeles.

The pet cemetery is quite a way from Hollywood itself, hiding out in Calabasas, on the far northern outskirts of the city. This area, which escaped the devastation caused by the January wildfires, is one of California's most expensive suburbs. The Kourtney Kardashian lives here somewhere. So does the actor Will Smith.

Malibu is nearby. Bob Dylan's place is there. But that lot are all hidden away in their mansions and on their compounds, behind gates and at the ends of long drives and a lot less interesting than the inhabitants of the 4ha of sun-kissed slopes that are the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park.

The park sits at the end of a lane between a light industrial zone and - from the "ponk-ponk" sounds coming over a high fence - a tennis court complex.

There could be stars, looking perfect, knocking their balls about over there, but there's more celebrity on this side of the fence. All dead, naturally, but not forgotten, if the fresh floral displays dotted across this eternal animal park are anything to go by.

Mostly, the last resting places of more than 40,000 animals here are marked by discreet lawn-level plaques, though there's nothing remotely low level about the epitaphs most of them bear. This is where the barking-mad business slips in.