My friend, Reed Tricket, has a 12-year-old chocolate Lab who died today. Woody is a rather famous dog, locally. Indeed, I can’t think of another Nashville dog in recent memory whose obituary has run in the Tennessean.*

Woody was a Nashville celebrity canine who appeared in all of the TV ads for the car dealership Reed runs. Everyone knew Woody. Even as Nashville has grown more and more into a major-market feeling city, Woody is one of those icons that helped keep a small-town feel on the local TV early-morning news programs.

I’ll miss Woody.

*Perhaps the most famous Middle-Tennessee celebrity dog was Franklin’s Buddy, the first American seeing-eye guide dog, and subject of the TV movie, Love Leads the Way.