For 12 years Mary Jane Moss of McDonough was the proud companion of Marley, the greatest dog in the world.
Many dog owners will claim the same title for their dog, but Moss, an investigator with the state Department of Corrections, is sure that she’s not wrong.
Credit: Mary Jane Moss
Credit: Mary Jane Moss
Marley was a British lab, not to be confused with that misbehaving yellow lab from the movie “Marley and Me.”
This Marley (they also called her “Charlie”) was calm, thoughtful, a dog that actually knew how to smile. Essentially a perfect dog, said Moss. “A human with fur.”
When Marley died in July, Moss needed a way to honor her memory.
A friend, Humberto Fallas, a doctor of optometry who opened Fallas Family Vision in McDonough in 2001, had recently created a suitable spot.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Just outside his downtown McDonough shop was a sort of shrine, a bronze statue of a German shepherd named Ace, and a short length of fence where dog owners have been hanging the tags of their deceased pets.
Moss and her husband Greg, who knew Fallas from CrossFit, also knew about Fallas’ beloved dog Ace, and they wanted to add Marley’s tag to the fence, alongside Katie, Gizmo, Muffin, Ziva, Bandit, Max and others.
Credit: Humberto Fallas
Credit: Humberto Fallas
Moss bought a bright red tag, shaped like a bone, with “Marley” on one side and “BFF Forever” on the other.
She sees it each morning when she drives down Griffin Street to the interstate., and it brightens her day. “I might wave,” she said. “I might honk every morning, maybe. It’s a happy thing to see.”
Fallas, a native of Costa Rica, already had two dogs, Moots and Leia in the year 2017, when Ace came into his life, a gift from a friend in his cycling club.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
He knew his wife Liz wouldn’t be wild about a third dog in the house, so he took her along to visit the puppy before she could say no. “My plan was for her to surrender to the cuteness,” said Fallas, 49, who everyone calls Peto. It worked.
Ace was a great dog, perhaps the greatest dog in the world, but he only lived four years. Ace died of cancer last spring. Fallas entered a dark time in his life. “When he lost Ace, I thought we were going to lose him,” said Moss.
Credit: Humberto Fallas
Credit: Humberto Fallas
Creating the memorial to Ace helped him, and it has also helped others.
When Hannah Leopold hung the tags of her English mastiff Barrett on the fencing at the memorial, “Oh gosh, it felt like such a relief,” she said. An optician’s consultant, she visits the office regularly.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
“Even now, I visit Dr. Fallas’ office once a month, I always stop by the fence and always look at it. Every month that I go now, the tags are multiplying. More and more people are finding out about this, and more and more people appreciate this.”
Her 220-pound English mastiff, who died a year and a half ago, still has a place in her heart and still elicits tears when she talks about him.
Credit: Hannah Leopold
Credit: Hannah Leopold
“He was our baby before baby,” said Leopold. (She and her ex-husband had Barrett before their son Ledger was born.) “Everybody thinks they’ve got the best dog in the world, but I take the cake when it comes to Barrett.”
Chris Olinger would beg to differ. His chocolate lab Gwen, a rescue from a hoarding situation, was a great dog. “I’ve done rescue for many years, and I usually foster dogs.”
Olinger might have had three or four other dogs in the house with Gwen, at any given time, but Gwen maintained her cool. “She didn’t care,” said Olinger, who is in the optician supply business. Gwen’s attitude was, he said, “This is my house. Don’t get in my way. We’re going to be fine. All the best of luck to you.”
Credit: Chris Olinger
Credit: Chris Olinger
When she died in September 2020, “I couldn’t pull myself together,” said Olinger. He said Ace’s memorial offered a balm for those feelings. “It gives (grieving pet owners) a place they can go and reflect and remember that lots of people feel that way about their pets.”
Olinger has also created a non-profit, called The Gwen Fund, to help provide funds when dying pets need palliative care.
Credit: Chris Olinger
Credit: Chris Olinger
The landscaping around the Fallas Family Vision shop is dotted with a few other whimsical installations, including a larger-than-life metal cut-out of George, Paul, Ringo and John in their crossing-Abbey-Road pose and another metal cut-out quoting a line from the Queen song “Bicycle Race.”
Fallas is a guitarist and a rock ‘n’ roll fan as well as a bicyclist. He got the idea for Ace’s memorial from Pont des Arts, the “love locks” bridge in Paris, where couples leave padlocks commemorating their affection. (Such bridges are all over the place these days, including in Amsterdam; Salzburg, Austria; Pittsburgh; and just down the road in Augusta)
“It’s a sentimental moment when they hang their tag there,” said the voluble Fallas. “I hope other communities mimic the idea and do the same thing.”
