Brookside has always loved pets, but one dog in particular became a neighborhood favorite.
His name was Rags, a 90-pound Airedale-sheepdog mix who became known as the Brookside dog in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Rags came to live with the Davidson family after Hy Davidson became fed up with the sickly nature of purebred dogs. When it was time for the family to get a new dog, he decided to get a healthy mutt. He went to the pound, and there, Rags was the first dog to wag his tail at Hy. For a one-dollar adoption fee, the five- or six-year-old tobacco-brown dog went home.
Before long, Rags had become a fixture in Brookside. He walked the Davidson children to school, first at Border Star and later at Southwest High School. He was so well known at Southwest that the principal allowed him to nap in the office. He even appeared in the school’s 1959 yearbook.
When he was not at school, Rags made his rounds through the Brookside business district. He visited stores and restaurants, making regular stops at his favorite places, where he was greeted with pets and the occasional snack.
In 1959, the Kansas City Star described Rags as “a real cosmopolitan,” noting that he had “a genuine dignity” and did not
tolerate foolish barking, fawning, or begging.
Four years later, when the Davidson family moved from Ward Parkway to 64th and Verona, Rags did not want to leave Brookside behind. Every day, he escaped the yard and made the two-mile walk back to his favorite neighborhood.
Hy worried that the trip was too much for the aging dog, so for four years, he drove Rags to Brookside each morning and picked him up in the afternoon.
Rags died after a sudden illness on September 1, 1962. But he is still remembered as one of Brookside’s most beloved residents.
