Dog Waits by Grave – Six Years

Shep

Shep was a border collie who followed his person, a Texas sheep farmer, everywhere. When the man was taken to hospital in Fort Benton in 1936, Shep followed him there. The man died a few days later, and the coffin was  to the train station in Fort Benton, Montana.

When railway officials stopped Shep from getting on the train, too, the dog hung around the station yard and waited for his person to return.

His story is told in the book “Forever Faithful – the Story of Shep” and on this website, which tells how the people at the train station fed him and cared for him, and people came to visit him from far and wide.

As he grew old, Shep lost his hearing. And one day in 1942, he didn’t hear the morning train as it pulled in to the station:

Stiff-legged and hard of hearing, Shep failed to hear old 235 as it rolled into the station at 10:17 that cold winter morning. He turned to look when the engine was almost upon him, moved to get out of the way, and slipped on the icy rails. Shep’s long vigil had ended.

A bronze sculpture of Shep stands nearby overlooking the river.

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