It was a cold day in West Monroe, Louisiana. While walking his dog in Kiroli Park, Zach Medlin stumbles across something he hasn’t noticed before. Upon close inspection, he notices a stone peeking between the fallen pine needles and leaves. Although Medlin’s one eyed Staffordshire Terrier Serena was more interested in chasing ducks in the nearby lake, the owner wanted to investigate further and uncovered the stone.
In an interview, Medlin had this to say: “The inscription was covered by some pine straw. So I had to move the pine straw out of the way to read what the grave marker had to say. The inscription read: ‘Buddie, 1928 – 1941. Born a dog / Died a gentleman.’”
The man wondered why this dog was buried alone in this 160-acre public park. According to the inscription, Medlin understood that the dead dog was great, and very much loved by his family all those long years ago, and he goes on to say: “It warms my heart to know that Buddie carried his owners through the Great Depression.
All dogs deserve a grave marker.” There is a local legend which states that Kiroli Park used to be a camp for Boy Scouts, and their mascot was a dog named Buddie. It is also said that one day, when a boy was swimming in the lake, he started to drown, when Buddie the dog spotted the boy and started barking, which alerted the other scouts, who were able to save the boy.
Whatever said and done, research done on this regard seems to disprove this. Lora Peppers writes on a website and had this to say: “While I was reading newspaper clippings detailing the legend, I found a copy of a handwritten note dated October 18, 1993.
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.’” No matter whether Buddie was a Boy Scout hero, or even just to his family, the dog was an extremely good boy. This memorial created by his family will allow his memory to live on.
