Canine pioneers

We all think our dogs are great, for a variety of reasons. However, there are a few dogs that have gone above and beyond in terms of courage and bravery which I’d like to share with you, as featured in “Canine Cottages”:

• Rupee: is the first canine on record to travel for 10 days to Everest base camp with his owner, Joanne Lefson, taking him to the lofty altitude of 17,000 feet. Joanne found Rupee when he was a starving puppy on the streets of Ladakh, India and took him home to South Africa. They returned to India just months later for their challenge – a mountain trek up Everest.
• Laika: this Russian canine was a true space dog and the first living creature launched into orbit around the Earth.
• Titina: accompanying her owner on his Arctic expeditions, Titina was the first dog to reach the North Pole. The fierce little brown-and-white fox terrier was the inseparable companion of Umberto Nobile, an Italian inventor and airship pilot. His dog was his most loyal crew member – a faithful companion who stood only 10 inches high, weighed about 12 pounds and once barked down a polar bear.
• Ashley: in 1974, Ashley the whippet and his owner halted a nationally broadcast baseball game by dashing onto the field and performing frisbee stunts in front of an astonished audience. Both canine frisbee and Ashley became instant celebrities, and their disc-catching game turned into the annual Frisbee Disc Canine Championship.
• Rin Tin Tin: American soldier Lee Duncan found the canine star of the silver screen on a French battlefield. Rin Tin Tin, who was famously cited in a divorce case and drank milk from a champagne glass, got his big break when he starred in the Warner Bros.’ film “Where the North Begins’, which is believed to have saved the studio from bankruptcy.
• Sergeant Stubby: was the official mascot of the 102nd Infantry Regiment (United States), assigned to the 26th (Yankee) Division. The only dog to be nominated for the rank and then promoted to sergeant through combat.
• Bobbie: after getting lost during a family vacation, Bobbie is the first dog to travel over 2,500 miles to get home to his family. Despite searching high and low, the family thought he was gone. But, six months later, he appeared on their doorstep, skinny and weak. This memorable journey earned him a new nickname after he returned home, “Bobbie the Wonder Dog.”
• Red Dog: was the first ever canine member of the Transport Workers’ Union. The kelpie/cattle dog cross was so well known for his travels through Western Australia’s Pilbara region that a statue was erected in his memory in Dampier, one of the towns to which he often returned.
• Balto and Togo: were lead sled dogs in the delivery of diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska in 1925. Known both as “The Great Race of Mercy” and “The Serum Run”, the two dogs were part of a team of 150 sled dogs and 20 mushers who covered a distance of 674 miles (1,085 kms) in five and a half days, saving the small town of Nome and surrounding communities from a developing diphtheria epidemic.

Dogs are amazing creatures who are capable of withstanding incredible physical challenges as well as supporting us mentally. Let us all be thankful for having dogs in our lives.