WHENEVER widow Penny Lally looks out of the windows of her farmhouse, she's comforted by the fact that, since her late husband John is buried in the garden, he is never far away.

And, should there be some sort of afterlife, Penny has ensured he will not go short of company, either.

For John, who died three years ago from cancer aged 64, is buried with a menagerie of now deceased family pets. Super Sam, Penny's beloved horse, is one of the animals buried with him.

Blot the cat is another, while Muppet the Alsatian dog, who died just two weeks after John, is also there. Last, but not least, is Brian the canary.

And when the time comes – for there is still room in the plot – there will be a space for Penny herself in what has become a popular pet and human cemetery.

"If John was buried on his own in some bleak windy graveyard, it would make me feel very sad," said Penny, 66, who, as well as running her pets cemetery also runs a bed and breakfast at Rose Farm, near Penzance.

"But knowing he had such a lovely burial – he was carried up the garden in a biodegradable wicker basket to the sound of a Cornish piper – and is at rest in a beautiful woodland with all the animals, has made his death so much easier to bear.

"I often laugh that John has a canary singing in his ear, a cat purring at his feet and a dog at his side. Ultimately, the woodland symbolises the circle of life and death so beautifully. Just standing there, you feel so close to nature and it makes death feel natural, as it should be.

"I know some people might find this hard to understand, but I loved the pets as much as John and wanted them all to be close to me and to each other."

It must be said that this sort of family grave, with its space for an assortment of pets, might not be to everyone's taste. But – unsurprisingly perhaps, given that we are a nation of animal-lovers – the Lally family are far from the only ones who are making the decision to be buried with their pets. So what's the reason for this growing trend?

"People nowadays love their pets as much as their human family," said Penny. "They see them as one and the same, and it doesn't surprise me that this has now extended to wanting to be buried with them as well."

Of course, the notion of being buried with pets isn't new. The Egyptian pharaohs were often buried with mummified cats, monkeys and birds – animals they believed shared an afterlife with humans.

And Anglo-Saxon nobles were interred with their horses – although when Christianity became the dominant religion in Britain, the practice fell out of favour, because many believed that pet rituals were linked to paganism.

But none of this concerned the Lallys when the idea was first suggested to them by an elderly neighbour a year or two before John's death. Penny said: "We used to have a small facility on our land for people to bury their pets here, owners who didn't want their pets cremated.

"Then one day we had an elderly woman who lived nearby who owned seven cats and wanted to be buried with them when she died.

"Her cats had been her family, and when they had all passed away, she'd had them cremated and kept their ashes in urns. Although she didn't want to bury each of her cats individually, she wanted their ashes placed beside her in her grave.

"It was certainly an unusual request, but she loved the beautiful countryside here and, when we thought about it, we really wanted to help.

"Of course, you can't just bury anyone in your garden. We had to apply for permission from our local authority to extend our licence to burying humans as well as animals.

"But it didn't take long and it was wonderful that we were able to carry out the lady's last wishes. Having helped to fulfil this woman's dream, John and I decided that when the time came, we, too, wanted to be buried side by side and with all our animals."

Since then, more than 30 owners have been laid to rest with their pets on Penny's farm, at an average cost of £2,000 to £3,000 per burial.

"People love it because, unlike a typical cemetery, there are no gravestones," she explained. "Instead, we have an 11-inch slate plaque to commemorate the person or pet who is buried there. Then we plant a tree, often in memory of the character of the person who has died. The plants absolutely flourish on top of the plots. The whole farm is 23 acres in total and we have sectioned off a six-acre plot for the woodland cemetery, separate to the rest of the land."

Just as Penny and John had agreed, after his death, she arranged for him to be laid to rest with the animals. "Now I find it remarkably comforting that he is still so close and that I can walk out and visit his grave whenever I want," she said.

So popular has the practice become that Penny now has 120 bookings – a fact that has convinced her people are taking to the idea of being close to their animals after death.

One who has joined the trend is Mim Nash, 55, of Penzance, who has reserved a £1,900 plot on Penny Lally's land in Cornwall for herself and her artist husband John, 65. They plan to be interred with their dog Conor, a 10-year-old Irish wolfhound who died two years ago, who is already buried in the woodland.

"Conor was one of the family," said Mim, a potter, who has two grown-up sons. "We got him from a rescue home and he never left our sides. He lived to a good age and had a peaceful death.

"But I wasn't happy at the thought of having him cremated at the vet's.

"What people don't realise is that often a cremation will be done with several other animals, so the ashes you are given might not even be of your pet."

According to the Association of Private Pet Cemeteries and Crematoria, of the estimated 1.5 million cats and dogs that die in the UK every year, some 300,000 are buried in owner's gardens.

"But apart from the practical issues of burying Conor in our garden and physically digging a hole big enough, we knew that if we ever move from this house, we would have to leave him here," said Mim.

Mim admits her sons have found it a strange choice.

"My sons are in their thirties and couldn't understand why we were so keen on such a 'wacky' idea," she said.

"My younger son, who attended Conor's funeral, did say how lovely it was, though."

For more details, visit www. petsandpeopletogetherforever.co.uk or call 01736 731310