My Dog Chester

“Dog Gone” is a heartwarming true story based on a boy’s dog who goes missing on the Appalachian Trail. Finding him quickly is paramount because the dog requires monthly medication. The parents launch a full-fledged effort to find & bring him home.

During the movie, the mom has flashbacks of when she was a little girl & she also had a dog she loved very much. She comes home from school one day & her parents tell her that her beloved dog was hit by a car & died.

This brought back my memories of a dog that suffered the same fate long ago. My dog’s name was Chester. Technically, Chester was a farm dog which meant his duties were outside, but he belonged to me & my sister because wherever we were, Chester was always there. Chester walked us to school each day & was there to meet us when school let out to walk us back home.

Chester had a great deal of border collie DNA & the job of border collies is to round things up & maintain order. Maybe his border collie instincts are what got him killed.

Our rural road was being repaired. In the ’50s, there were few cars, so road equipment & trucks were new things for Chester. Mr. Murphy was the road supervisor & he was driving up the road in his truck to check out the work. Chester went to the road to “round things up,” & Mr. Murphy didn’t see Chester & his truck hit & killed him.  

My sister & I were heartbroken. Mr. Murphy was a kind man & felt very bad.  He offered to get “the girls” another dog, but my Grandfather was also kind and told him not to worry about it. However, Chester’s death hurt my Grandfather very profoundly because he loved Chester too but did not let it show.

My Grandfather laid Chester to rest on the edge of our bottomland. He buried Chester under a tree next to the creek. When my Grandfather worked in that area, I would go with him & visit the tree where Chester was buried.

That was 65 years ago & I can still see the spot under the tree. I never had another dog after that. We continued to have dogs on the farm, but none got inside my heart like Chester.

We didn’t own a camera, so I don’t have an actual picture of Chester, but the below photo is my Chester & he still lives on in my heart & my mind just like this.