“It warms my heart to know that Buddie carried his owners through the Great Depression,” Medlin said. “All dogs deserve a grave marker.”
Locals know the legend – but for those not familiar with the Louisiana lore, Kiroli Park used to be a summer camp for the Boy Scouts. Apparently, the Scouts had a mascot dog named Buddie. According to the urban legend, a boy was swimming in one of the lakes when he began to go underwater and started drowning. It was Buddie who started barking to alert a camp leader to the dying Scout, so people could rush into the shallows and rescue him from certain death.
However, this might not be true.
“While I was reading newspaper clippings detailing the legend, I found a copy of a handwritten note dated October 18, 1993,” Lora Peppers wrote on Findagrave.com. “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.’”
Whether Buddie was a mascot for the Boy Scouts or a beloved family pet, he sure has a resting place any dog would love.