I don’t believe in ghosts. If life was Buzzfeed Unsolved, I am Shane, a non-believer. I’m more than willing to play Ouija board games at sleepovers or say Bloody Mary three times in a mirror. I don’t think you’re stupid if you do believe in ghosts, I just don’t…. mostly. I don’t believe in human ghosts, but I do believe in dog ghosts.
Back in the 30’s, UVA had an unofficial mascot: a lil’ pup named Beta (He was found by some brothers of Beta Theta Pi. Yes, the bridge guys). He was beloved by everyone on Grounds. I’ve even read that he would run across the football field during games when the team would first run out of the tunnels (or whatever the 1930s equivalent was). Sadly, he died when he was hit by a car. I’m not kidding when I say that the entire university mourned Beta’s death. There was a funeral procession through Grounds. This dog was LOVED. He was the original CavDog.
Then, in the 50s, another dog wagged his way into students’ hearts. This was Seal, named for his pitch black coat. Same deal as Beta, everyone loved him, he would run out during sports games, and everyone cried when he died. The University cemetery is reserved for actual University people, like professors and famous alumni, but UVA loved these dogs so much that they buried them, with personalized gravestones, right outside of the cemetery fence.
(Picture courtesy of UVA Magazine) This is Beta, and I promise he’s not dead in this picture, he’s just lazy. Actually, I think this was taken when he made a trip to the hospital for an injured paw, which he survived.
(Picture courtesy of UVA Libraries) This is Seal just hanging out in his football gear, doing what dogs do best: making weird faces.
(OKAY I PROMISE THERE ARE BETTER PICTURES OF THE DOGS THAN THESE, THEY’RE JUST TOO SMALL TO UPLOAD! Google “Beta and Seal UVA” and you’ll find a bunch of stuff.)
I learned all of this from some googling and a U-Guides tour during my first year. The tour was on Halloween and the guide walked us around the Lawn and talked about rumored ghosts on Grounds. She told us that the ghosts of Beta and Seal have been seen running together on Lambeth Field, the old football field. Of course, I didn’t believe it at the time, but my feelings changed in the fall of second year.
Like I said, the ghost dogs have been apparently seen on Lambeth Field. Get this: I live in the Lambeth Apartments. The field is literally my backyard; I can be on the field and touch my building at the same time. One day in October or November (aka football season), I was leaving my apartment to go to class when I saw two dogs, running around in the open area between the buildings. One was brown and white, and one was completely black. I don’t actively think about random university tours I’ve been on all the time, so I didn’t correlate it to Beta and Seal. Also, people bring their dogs off the leash to Lambeth Field all the time. This was normal. I reached my hand out to one of the dogs for it to sniff (yes, I wanted to pet these dogs, duh), but both dogs suddenly sprinted away around the corner… to the field. When I turned the corner onto the field, I was expecting to see the dogs with their owner. Instead, there was nothing and no one. Less than 30 seconds had passed since the dogs running to the field and disappearing. The worst part was that I was literally the only person outside in the apartment complex at the time, and in the field. No one can corroborate my story, and I was half convinced I was going crazy.
Lambeth in 1919 (Picture courtesy of Wikipedia)
Lambeth in 2014 (Picture courtesy of Virginia Football)
I remembered about Beta and Seal later that day and realized what I had potentially seen. I got excited and told all of my friends and called my parents, but I played it off as a joke, like a funny conspiracy theory. Meanwhile, I was convinced I had seen ghost dogs, specifically the ghosts of Beta and Seal. I didn’t see the dogs again and I forgot about them, that is until I saw them again last week. The same situation happened, although this time I was already on Lambeth Field. Two dogs with no owner were playing in the field, ignoring me (which was rude because I wanted to pet them), and no one was around to see it except for me.
Guys, I’m telling y’all, I’ve seen ghost dogs.
I had told my friend Maria about my sighting and she was interested. Somehow we decided we needed to go to the cemetery and find the dogs’ graves. We gathered some of our friends and went on a ghost dog quest (we originally called it a hunt but that sounded a little aggressive for a group of people who just really love dogs).
The quest was actually so much fun. First of all, the cemetery is just fun to see in general. That sounds morbid, and it probably is, but it’s really cool! I totally recommend taking an hour one day to check it out. Literally every guy with a dorm or building named after him is in there.Finding the dogs’ graves was like a scavenger hunt. We had no idea where they were buried and we were going off of my patchy memory of a Halloween U-Guides tour and what Maria could find online. Luckily, we also found a map of the graves, which helped. (The maps were in this little metal bin with a sign that said “Cemetery Walking Tour,” although I think the last time that bin was touched was before women could attend.)
Maria, who quickly became our fearless scav hunt leader, digging up the deets on the location of these gravestones
Beta and Seal are buried in a plot right outside of the cemetery wall, by a tree, with the headstones facing the Rotunda. Each dog has a framed picture (although someone had busted up Seal’s frame because people are jerks) and an engraving that reads, “Mascot and beloved friend of the students of the University of Virginia.” It’s really darn cute.
Sadly, we did not see any ghost dogs, but I still firmly believe that Beta and Seal are running around the University having fun and going on adventures. Maybe we didn’t see them because ghosts aren’t real. Maybe we didn’t see them because they were playing on the field. Who knows? Either way, the trip was a little silly, a lot of fun, and a good break from studying for finals. 10/10 recommend reading up on Beta and Seal (here), exploring the cemetery, and giving a dog a hug.