![Actress Louise Brooks, the quintessential flapper of the 1920s. Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection, Call Number: LC-B2- 5474-15 [P&P].](https://petcemeterystories.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/FlapperLouiseBrooks_32453v.jpg)
Category Archives: Dogs
Rickey, Admiral Byrd’s Sled Dog
Military honors for the funeral of a dog are rare, but that’s what happened in 1948, when Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s most famous sled dog was buried at Aspin Hill Pet Cemetery.
Rickey, a Labrador husky, was born in 1934 at Little America, an exploration base on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. He left the frigid continent, at the age of nine months, in the company of his owner, Lt. Comdr. Frederick Dustin (USNR). The pair made two return trips to Antarctica in 1939 and 1947. Continue reading Rickey, Admiral Byrd’s Sled Dog
Rags, War Hero
There’s a granite stone at Aspin Hill Memorial Park which marks the grave of a dog named Rags who is dubbed a “War Hero” and “1st Division Mascot WW I.” I wondered how this dog became a war hero, but I didn’t wonder for long. The tale of Rags is one of the best documented of the pet cemetery stories. Continue reading Rags, War Hero
Dog Statues in Aspin Hill Memorial Park
When a monument to a pet includes the figure of a dog, it pulls at my heart just a little bit harder. These are the best of the dog statues in Aspin Hill Memorial Park.
I took this photo in May 2013, around the time I first started photographing around Aspin Hill Memorial Park. Lately, there’s been a bone between Skippy’s two paws. I’m sure he’d have loved that. Continue reading Dog Statues in Aspin Hill Memorial Park
Pet Cemetery Mysteries
Here are two grave stones that have me stumped. I have been unable to find the stories behind them, despite the specific details that the pets’ owners had inscribed on their memorials. I’ll post them here in the hope that someone may know their stories and share them with me. Failing that, let us read these memorials and be heartened by the knowledge that our animal friends are capable of heroism.
Lest We Forget
I love this simple grave stone. There is no name or date on it, so I have no story to tell you. It appears to be cast concrete. Above the portrait of the Boston terrier, there is a motto, spelled out in metal letters pressed into the concrete: Lest We Forget. It’s a simple reminder of what Aspin Hill — or any cemetery — is about: the loving remembrance of those who have enriched our lives and are now gone.
This Ever Faithful Barking Ghost
Get out your hankies, because this is one sad story. On a lovely Sunday morning in August 1928, Eric and Alvina Matus of Capitol Heights, Maryland went on a boating trip on the Potomac. They and another couple were fishing from a skiff near Colonial Beach, Virginia when they capsized. The couple with them were rescued by nearby fishermen, but the Matuses disappeared in sixty feet of water. Days later, their bodies were recovered.
Continue reading This Ever Faithful Barking Ghost
J. Edna Hoover
One of the delights of visiting a pet cemetery is reading all the interesting, heart-warming, and funny names people give their pets. Last week, I showed you the tombstone of J. Edgar Hoover’s dog, Spee De Bozo. Now meet J. Edna Hoover, an English bulldog buried in Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in New York. I wonder if the owners really admired the FBI director, or if this was their way of mocking him?
Inscription: J. Edna "Hoover" The Greatest Little Girl To Walk This Earth On Two Or Four Legs. Keep Watching Over Me Location: Hartsdale Pet Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York
J. Edgar Hoover’s Dogs
J. Edgar Hoover was, among other things, devoted to his dogs. His first, Spee De Bozo, was so beloved that Hoover kept his photograph on his desk at work. When Spee De Bozo died in 1934, Hoover buried him in Aspin Hill Memorial Park. Accompanied by three of his aides, he watched as his beloved Airedale was lowered into the ground. He told the cemetery groundskeeper, “This is one of the saddest days of my life.”
Continue reading J. Edgar Hoover’s Dogs
Mack the Famous Seeing Eye Dog
This gravestone caught my eye, and not just because of the noble German Shepherd dog whose photograph graces it. It was the inscription, “Mack Famous Seeing Eye Dog of George Ramey,” that got my attention. I wondered just how famous this dog might have been. I found the answer in the pages of three local newspapers of the period, The Washington Post, The Evening Star, and The Alexandria Gazette.
Continue reading Mack the Famous Seeing Eye Dog