Category Archives: Dogs

Dogs

Rickey, Admiral Byrd’s Sled Dog

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Bugler salutes Rickey during his funeral at Aspin Hill Pet Cemetery. Evening Star, June 6, 1948
Bugler salutes Rickey during his funeral at Aspin Hill Pet Cemetery. Evening Star, June 6, 1948

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 →

Aspin Hill Memorial Park, Dogs

Rags, War Hero

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Rags, War Hero. 1st Division Mascot, WW I. Aspin Hill Memorial Park.
Rags, War Hero. 1st Division Mascot, WW I. Aspin Hill Memorial Park.

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 →

Aspin Hill Memorial Park, Dogs

Dog Statues in Aspin Hill Memorial Park

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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.

Skippy, a Boston terrier (May 2013) dog statues
Skippy, a Boston terrier (May 2013)

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 →

Dogs

Pet Cemetery Mysteries

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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.

Jockey, Gordon Setter, Fire Hero of Belle Harbor. Aspin Hill Memorial Park
Jockey, Gordon Setter, Fire Hero of Belle Harbor. Aspin Hill Memorial Park.

Continue reading Pet Cemetery Mysteries →

Aspin Hill Memorial Park, Dogs

Lest We Forget

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Metal plaque on concrete of a Boston terrier. Lettering above reads “Lest We Forget.” Aspin Hill Memorial Park.

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.

Aspin Hill Memorial Park, Dogs

This Ever Faithful Barking Ghost

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Pal, Scotch collie of Eric Matus. Aspin Hill Memorial Park.
Pal, Scotch collie of Eric Matus. Aspin Hill Memorial Park.

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 →

Dogs, Funny Tombstones, Hartsdale Pet Cemetery

J. Edna Hoover

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J. Edna Hoover. Hartsdale Pet Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.
J. Edna Hoover. Hartsdale Pet Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.

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
Aspin Hill Memorial Park, Dogs

J. Edgar Hoover’s Dogs

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Spee De Bozo, J. Edgar Hoover's Airedale. Aspin Hill Memorial Park.
Spee De Bozo, J. Edgar Hoover’s Airedale. Aspin Hill Memorial Park.

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 →

Aspin Hill Memorial Park, Dogs

Mack the Famous Seeing Eye Dog

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Mack, Famous Seeing Eye Dog of George Ramey
Mack, Famous Seeing Eye Dog of George Ramey

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 →

Aspin Hill Memorial Park, Dogs

Who’s Buried in Grant’s Tomb? Not Petey of Our Gang.

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General Grant of R.K.O., also known as Jiggs (not Petey of Our Gang). Photo taken April 21, 2018
General Grant of R.K.O., also known as Jiggs (not Petey of Our Gang). Photo taken April 21, 2018

One of the most frequently repeated stories about Aspin Hill Memorial Park is that Petey from the Our Gang movies is buried there.  As evidence, newspaper articles about the cemetery in Aspen Hill, Maryland point to the grave of General Grant of R.K.O., whose nickname was Jiggs.

When I visited General Grant of R.K.O.’s grave in 2012, I found a gravestone with a photo of a bulldog on it. That was my first clue that something was amiss. I knew already that all of the dogs who played Petey (there were three of them) were American pit bull terriers. I’ve never seen a bulldog in an Our Gang movie, nor were any of the dogs named Jiggs or General Grant.
Continue reading Who’s Buried in Grant’s Tomb? Not Petey of Our Gang. →