Although it’s a terrible reality that our pets don’t live as long as we do, they undoubtedly have a significant impact on our lives while they are with us on Earth.
We never forget our cherished pets, and some of them are even immortalized in their own memorials, which may preserve them in people’s memories for decades.
As one dog by the name of “Buddie,” whose adorable tombstone in a public park serves as a reminder that to those who knew and loved him, he was more than simply a pet.
The grave is located in West Monroe, Louisiana’s Kiroli Park. BUDDIE 1928–1941 — Born a dog / Died a gentleman, it says.
Even for those who never met Buddie and were born decades after his passing, it’s a touching sentiment for anybody who has ever owned and loved a companion dog.
This year, while walking his own dog around the park, Zach Medlin happened upon the cemetery. After reading the headstone, he became overwhelmed.
Zach told The Dodo, “It warms my heart to know that Buddie sustained his owners through the Great Depression.” All canines have to have cemetery markers.
Zach said he had to clear some branches from the grave, which is the only one in the park, in order to read it. Yet Buddie is well-known enough in the community to have his own folklore.
A scout went swimming on the lake and began dying, according to a post from the Kiroli Park Facebook page, back when the location was a Boy Scout camp called Camp Kiroli. By barking for assistance, Buddie saved the day and helped save the youngster, but regrettably, Buddie also drowned.
Although locals involved in the Boy Scouts organization throughout the years remember the incident and assume it to be accurate, Buddie’s account cannot be formally verified, according to Kiroli Park.
Nevertheless, there’s another, more straightforward explanation for why Buddie received his own burial and honorific while other dogs don’t. A history website for Ouachita Parish looked into the lore but couldn’t find any news reports to back up the Boy Scout account.
The researcher found discover newspaper articles from 1993 at the neighborhood library, quoting Mrs. Dee Strickland, who resided with the family in 1942, that stated Buddie was a treasured pet of Mr. And Mrs. Albert H. Jones of Monroe, Louisiana. The note states, “Not a Boy Scout dog.”
But the pair evidently adored Buddie, a “wonderful Irish Setter,” and chose to bury him in Kiroli Park since they apparently took walks with him there frequently.
He “died a gentleman” in this case not because he was a hero rescuing lives, but just because he was a really decent dog. As Zach pointed out, Buddie lived much of his life during the Great Depression and could have provided his family with a lot of comfort during that trying period.
That makes me think of Dewey’s burial, a cat who, although being “just a cat,” was “human enough to offer a tremendous consolation in hours of loneliness and grief.”
What a lovely memorial to a cherished dog. This “gentleman” dog has been dead for more than 80 years, but he continues to move and inspire people.
