Sundquist Names State Park After Dog
Sundquist Names State Park After Dog; Believed to be first in nation
In what is believed to be a first anywhere in the U.S., Gov. Don Sundquist, set to leave office next month, announced last week that he has named a new state park in upper East Tennessee after his dog Bailey.
Sundquist made the surprise announcement while visiting a kindergarten class in North Nashville. After reading the book Clifford the Big Red Dog to the children, the governor said that all of us should have good memories of pets who have been important in our lives.
“That’s why I decided to honor the pets of Tennessee by naming the new state park near Mountain City the Bailey State Recreation Area,” he said.
Bailey was a dog that Sundquist and his wife Martha picked up near a local restaurant shortly after his term in office began. What seemed to be a heartwarming story of a powerful politician taking in a stray animal turned into a PR nightmare when the little boy who owned Bailey made a public appeal for his return. Sundquist reluctantly returned the dog, but the story ended tragically when Bailey was struck and killed by a car not long afterward.
Officials at the state Department of Environment and Conservation, which oversees the parks, confirm that they have ordered a bronze plaque with the likeness of Bailey to be used at the new recreation area’s visitor center.
“How many of you think it’s a good thing to remember a pet you loved and has died?” Sundquist asked the 5-year-olds during his visit. As every small hand waved in the air, the governor smiled in response. “Me too,” he said.
The incoming Bredesen administration has no plans to change the curious naming of the park, Bredesen spokeswoman Lydia Lenker says.
“We aren’t about to [tick] off the dog owners in this state,” she says. “The Bailey Recreation Area it is.”
(The Fabricator is satire. Don’t believe everything you read.)
“We aren’t about to [tick] off the dog owners in this state,” she says. “The Bailey Recreation Area it is.”
(The Fabricator is satire. Don’t believe everything you read.)
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