Cute Puppy or Fairytale Puppy?

Posted on 2011-08-09

Share this:

Email this Print this

Have you heard of the story of Greyfriars Bobby? It’s a cute story about a Skye Terrier named Bobby who was very loyal to his master, a policeman.

They played with each other and weresuch good friends that when his master died, Bobby sat by his grave and cried for 14 years! This story which took place 140 years ago hastouched people so much that Disney even made a filmabout it! But a college professor, who was snooping around for clues about the “real” Bobby, found out that this story wasn’t true at all—it was a hoax! A cemetery curator named James Brown and a restaurant owner named John Traill wanted to come up with a plan to attract tourists and make more money.

So they decided to make up a story about a faithful little dog and even built a statue of Bobby! Tourists flocked to the cemetery and the restaurant to see the statue and go home and tell their friends all about Bobby and his statue. This meant great business for Brown and Traill!

But Bobby was really just a regular stray dog who hung around the cemetery because locals fed him scraps of food. He wasn’t sad at all.

He was actually a very happy and lazy dog! And when Bobby died, Brown and Traill replaced him with another dog to continue business!

A lot of people, however, still love Bobby’s story simply because it’s sweet…and as long as stories are fun, who cares whether they are true or not?