Kris Massie was finishing high school in Melbourne when he became the proud owner of Paris, a miniature fox terrier cross jack Russell.

“I was at Carlton and doing Year 12 exams and he would be on my desk or on my bed, he was a beautiful little dog,” Massie said.

And when Massie moved to Adelaide after being traded to the Crows from the Blues in 2001, his four-legged friend came with him.

“He was my right hand man,” Massie said.

“If I went for a 9km run in the off-season he would run with me the whole way down to Semaphore, then as he got a bit older I would put him in a basket on the back of my bike because his tired legs were getting a bit older, but we’d still be together.

“We changed his name to Buddy eventually because I started calling him my bud – which is quite ironic because my footy gravestone reads ‘Buddy’ from that elimination final in 2007.

“He had a great innings and when he couldn’t walk any more my wife and I took him down the beach and gave him his last little meal and he passed away in my arms.

“Like every family has a particular pet he will be hard to surpass.”

Advertiser photographer Ray Titus heard about Massie and Buddy and took a photo of the pair at Grange Beach.

“He used to ride around with that little dog in the back of his bike,” Titus said.

“Someone rang me one day and said ‘have you ever seen this?’ so I asked Kris and he was happy to do a photo.”