But it wasn’t a bad Disney movie.
Yep. For me, this is up there with finding out the truth about Santa Claus, but the story of Greyfriars Bobby was publicity stunt to promote tourism in Edinburgh.
Reuters reports:
The most faithful dog in the world, which kept a 14-year vigil at his master’s grave in Edinburgh, Scotland, was nothing but a Victorian business stunt, according to historian Jan Bondeson.
The 140-year-old story of Greyfriars Bobby continues to draw tourists to the graveyard that was once inhabited by the Skye Terrier commemorated by a bronze fountain erected in his memory in the cemetery and immortalised on the silver screen by Walt Disney in a 1961 film.
But Bondeson, a senior lecturer at Cardiff University, claims that Bobby was far from the dependable dog portrayed in the tale of undying Scottish devotion.
He says the story was a fabrication, created by cemetery curator, James Brown, and restaurant owner, John Traill, to drum up custom for local businesses — and that Bobby was a stray mutt, bribed with food to stay in the graveyard.
“The entire story is wrong –the account of the dog on the drinking fountain who supposedly kept vigil at his master’s grave in all kinds of weather is not accurate. Bobby would go out hunting rats in the church and was kept well fed by the locals. He was not a mourning dog at all — he was a happy little dog,” Bondeson told Reuters.
The trusty terrier – as the story goes- kept watch over the grave of his beloved master, Edinburgh policeman John Gray, from his death in 1858 until the animal died in 1872.
However, after studying drawings and contemporary accounts of Bobby while researching his book, “Amazing Dogs,” Bondeson also realised that he was looking at two different pooches.
“I noticed that the two dogs looked quite different. The first Bobby was quite an ugly dog but in later paintings he looks just like the statue on the drinking fountain,” Bondeson said.
The first Bobby, an old mongrel, died in 1867, leaving Brown and Traill with a problem on their hands, Bondeson said.
“A dead Bobby was no good for business, so they replaced him with a pure-bred Skye terrier who lived for a further five years until 1872 — after which it time did not take long for the fountain to be erected,” said Bondeson.
It’s an amazing hoax.
Oh well.
It reminds me of an episode on King of Queens, where Doug’s overprotective parents replaced Rocky the Boxer three times. His wife Carrie undid the hoax when she became suspicious the dog that was alive when her husband was 11 still persist 27 years later.
Most stories involving terriers are actually fraudulent.
On the other hand, the stories of faithful border collies are always true.
Do I see that avatar with it’s tongue planted firmly in cheek?
There have been documented cases of dogs staying near pack mates or owners past death. There was even one in Japan following the earthquake/tsunami where one dog was filmed staying by another that was injured (both later were rescued and adopted). So the “Bobby” story may be a hoax, but it’s reasonably based on a dog having a “routine” (meet the train, meet owner as they come home) plus documented loyalty (just not lasting as long as “Bobby”). It doesn’t surprise me that the “Bobby” story was a hoax, as training a dog to perform the Bobby routine would not have been difficult. It’s like the “lassie come home” story — there are a very few actual cases of dogs getting back to their owners across vast distances — but it’s very rare and the “movie” version is always a great deal more theatrical and exaggerated.
Peggy Richter
So is the dog in the picture the real Bobby or the fake? It doesn’t look like the statue.
Cute dog.
The dog in the photo is the first of the two dogs that played Bobby. The photo was taken in 1865. http://www.clusterflock.org/2009/05/greyfriars-bobby.html
The statue is based upon the second dog, which was a definite “purebred” Skye terrier.
The first dog appears to have been a Skye/Cairn terrier type, which was pretty common in northern Scotland.
The statue dog is a rather ugly looking thing. The original dog is much cuter. Looks like a big Yorkie.
There’s also the true story of Shep:
http://www.fortbenton.com/shep/story.html
You’re saying that’s a fake story too?
No, Shep’s story is true. Or at least more true than Greyfriars Bobby.
saw this on the news today:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44271018/ns/today-today_pets_and_animals/?GT1=43001
“Navy SEAL Jon Tumilson lay in a coffin, draped in an American flag, in front of a tearful audience mourning his death in Afghanistan. Soon an old friend appeared, and like a fellow soldier on a battlefield, his loyal dog refused to leave him behind.
Tumilson’s Labrador retriever, Hawkeye, was photographed lying by Tumilson’s casket in a heart-wrenching image taken at the funeral service in Tumilson’s hometown of Rockford, Iowa, earlier this week. “