For real dog lovers out there, our love for dogs is priceless and timeless. Many of us consider them as family members and even include them in some of our traditions: Halloween, birthday celebrations, weddings, and even funerals and memorial ceremonies.
In many cultures, traditional burial rites involve dedicating a headstone in honor of the person lost. So naturally, people often remember their lost pets the same way. That doesn’t seem to have changed much at all over the last 80 years, as a recent discovery in a local park indicates.
Zach Medlin was walking his dog, Serena, when the pair came across something they had never noticed on any of their previous walks. There in Kiroli Park in West Monroe, Louisiana, amongst the pine needles and leaves, was a little square stone peering through.
It was a small square stone and it had been mostly covered by fallen leaves and pine needles. While his one-eyed Staffordshire terrier, Serena, was busy duck-chasing in the lake, Medlin decided to take a closer look.
While Serena busied herself with the challenge of chasing down the wild animals and trying to catch one or two for her owner, Zach took a moment to take a closer look at the gravestone that he happened to find in the middle of the woods in the public park.
“The inscription was covered by some pine straw,” Medlin told The Dodo. “So I had to move the pine straw out of the way to read what the grave marker had to say.”
So what did the inscription on the gravestone say? Well, according to a photo published online by Medlin, it said: “Buddie, 1928 — 1941. Born a dog / Died a gentleman.”
The pubic park spans 160 acres and is welcome to all in the community.
“It warms my heart to know that Buddie carried his owners through the Great Depression,” Medlin said. “All dogs deserve a grave marker.”
Of course, it’s all a beautiful reminder of the strong relationship between people and their dogs, no matter how brief their time together. Buddie did live 13 years, and obviously, he lived a full life.
Medlin shared a photo of Buddie’s resting place to the popular Facebook group “Dogspotting,” and of course, it resonated with many. The post now has over 58,000 likes and 1,300 shares.
‘AWM’ shared this urban legend story:
Locals know the legend – but for those not familiar with the Louisiana lore, Kiroli Park used to be a summer camp for the Boy Scouts. Apparently, the Scouts had a mascot dog named Buddie. According to the urban legend, a boy was swimming in one of the lakes when he began to go underwater and started drowning. It was Buddie who started barking to alert a camp leader to the dying Scout, so people could rush into the shallows and rescue him from certain death.
However, this might not be true.
“While I was reading newspaper clippings detailing the legend, I found a copy of a handwritten note dated October 18, 1993,” Lora Peppers wrote on Findagrave.com. “It says the following: ‘According to Mrs. Dee Strickland, the dog belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Albert H. Jones, 215 Breard St., Monroe. Mrs. Strickland lived with the Jones [family] in 1932. The dog was a beautiful Irish setter. Mr. Jones frequently took him to Kiroli Park to run, so when he died, he decided to bury him in Kiroli Park.’”
Whether Buddie was a mascot for the Boy Scouts or a beloved family pet, he sure has a resting place any dog would love.