My friend Stan Diel, a writer at the Birmingham News, recently traveled to northwest Alabama on a pilgrimage to America’s only cemetery dedicated to raccoon-hunting dogs. (And only raccoon-hunting dogs. Notice the sign. They don’t want you trying to bury your bird dog in there.)

I have a complicated relationship with ‘coon dogs myself, having been bitten by my grandfather’s as a small child. But it’s hard to not get a little emotional when you see how much some of these people loved their dogs. Even those dead for decades have relatively fresh plastic flowers on their graves. There is love here. Repose the hounds.

A monument
to the ‘coon hound. The previous version of this statue was
vandalized, Stan says. The new one was rebuilt behind a tall
fence topped with razor wire.

The cemetery provides an outhouse for
mourners. With paper.