A beagle named 'Buddy'

News reporters are trained to gather every possible detail when working on a story. The rule of thumb is to “always get the name of the dog.”

For this story, we got them all.

Looking through the database of every registered dog in Waynesboro, we found four beagles named Buddy, four Chihuahuas (and one pitbull) named Peanut and five dogs named with a number 2. The city is home to a pair of Dobermans named Brooklyn and Bronx, and the one and only registered “mutt” is named Bojangles. Alphabetically, names range from Abbey to Zydeco.

There are five dogs named Scruffy, four named Scrappy, one Screech and one Scurry.

There’s just one “Spot” in town, a Staffordshire Terrier living on Fairway Drive.

“When you have a mostly white dog, with a brindle patch on one ear and another on the opposite eye, there’s no reason not to call him Spot,” said Glenn Doggett, who found the dog at the Charlottesville SPCA.

At the time, “he had a very human-sounding name,” Doggett said, which spurred the change.

Of the 3,470 dogs listed in the city’s database, Spot isn’t the only one that claims a unique name.

Ken Munson, of Inglecress Road, was surprised by a News Virginian call about his English Bulldog. But Munson was happy to talk when a reporter said “Toby Keith” seemed to be one-of-a-kind.

“Well, he is,” Munson said.

Explaining the name, Munson said country music star Toby Keith put out a record called “Unleashed,” with a dog house on the cover and an English Bulldog pictured inside.

“It just fit him to a ‘T’,” Munson said. “He’s just the best boy. You won’t believe some of the stuff he does.”

At 10 each night, the 51-pound, white-and-brown Toby Keith stands in front of the TV and cries to go to bed.

“If you don’t cut off the TV, he’ll bark at you,” Munson said.

The 3-year-old gets along with children and uses his wrinkly face and saggy jowls to make people smile. He also thinks he’s a lap dog, Munson said.

The Labrador retriever is the most popular breed in town, just as it has been for at least a decade across the United States. Beagles, Chihuahuas, pitbulls, Yorkies, Pomeranians and dachshunds are also popular, with at least 130 of each within city limits.

About 100 dogs were registered simply as “mixed.”

By crossing the list of most popular breeds and most popular names, the newspaper found beagles named Buddy to be about as popular as it gets. And the combination has a ring to it.

For Bob Richardson, his 5-year-old beagle named Buddy didn’t always have that name.

As a rescue dog, he received the beagle as “Peanut” (also popular).

“I tried a couple of names on him and just didn’t like it,” said Richardson, of Red Top Orchard Road. “But he was always coming up to me and licking me and I named him Buddy.”

Across town in the Tree Streets, Cara Graham also got to “Buddy” after a slight modification.

“His official name is Budweiser,” she said of her 11-year-old, tri-colored beagle. “Then we had kids, so we sort of shortened it to Buddy.”

And then there’s Chewbacca.

Known as a wooly beast of great strength in the Star Wars movies, the Chewbacca living in Waynesboro is a puffy little Pomeranian.

“He looked like Chewbacca when he was real little,” said owner Jesse Robinette.

The dog also chews a lot, so the name is often shortened to “Chewy.”

“I wish he would do the roar,” Robinette said, “but he doesn’t.”