I am 100% positive that I’ll have a number of these posts if I can stick with regularly blogging but for now I’ll just start with this one featuring some of my favorite critter graves, memorials and more from my home state of Georgia. And, yes, I cried when I visited some of them because of course. Although with my childhood history with Stuckie the Dog I’ve now garnered a weird appreciation/fascination with the uniqueness of the situation even though, well, you’ll see…
Bobby the Brown Dog
Bobby, or Lt. Bobby as he should rightly be called, was the constant companion of Capt. Harris so, as you can imagine, he was at the military base on the regular. So much so that Bobby received his commission as mascot of the Army by President Calvin Coolidge in 1927 and is the only dog to have held the title. You can see some amazing photos here.
Sadly, Bobby died when he fell down an elevator shaft while visiting a local hotel with Capt. Harris. He was buried at the well known Rose Hill Cemetery with full military honors and to this day visitors still leave sticks for him. (Grave goods are the sweetest, arent’ they?) Capt. Harris died only 7 years later and is buried next to his “loyal pal” Bobby.
Nancy the Elephant
Everyone, meet Nancy! She’s somewhat of an iconic cemetery stop and has been featured on Atlas Obscura and Roadside America.
This life-size baby elephant gravestone marks the resting place of the hopeful but doomed circus creator and owner William Duggan, Sr. who died before he ever witnessed his business dreams actually come to fruition.
It’s said that Nancy, the real-life baby elephant he purchased for the show, followed him everywhere he went. And that eventually included the hospital where Duggan Sr. died of unknown (to me) causes. As for Nancy, her life and whereabouts after Duggan’s death have never been confirmed from what I’ve found. Any other cemetery explorers out there know what happened?
Stuckie the Mummified Dog
What’s that? A mummy in southern Georgia? Why, yes indeed!
You know, graves don’t always have to be carved stone, an obelisk or a plot of earth. Sometimes they can be the tree where a determined but unlucky hunting dog lost its life in pursuit of another critter. In an odd turn of events, the tannins of the tree kept “Stuckie” preserved until he was found by local loggers.
He now lives in a small time capsule of a museum as the star exhibit. There are t-shirts, mugs and paintings emblazoned with his dessicated grin.
Fun fact: I graduated High School in Waycross and I spent a lot of my childhood there, and I actually had a good friend who was a docent at the local Heritage Center where Stuckie was first displayed. She spent the majority of her afternoons sitting at a desk facing the dog and often called me to come and visit her since she swore that Stuckie would move from time-to-time. I never witnessed that spooky event but eventually we became used to Stuckie and was no longer frightened by his smile. When I visited Stuckie again as an adult in my 40’s, it was like seeing a long lost pal in a way!
Brownie the Depot Dog
Brownie was a local stray dog who decided to become the ‘official unofficial’ welcome party at the local train depot in Rome. It was as if he knew the train’s daily schedule and would show up right on time to greet the passengers arriving to town. This went on for over a decade before went to the big dog park, or his case the big train depot, in the sky.
Sadly, the depot is long gone and is now an empty lot of loose gravel. But Brownie’s grave, erected in 1941, still remains to greet any and all visitors. Just like old times…
