About Me

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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Monday, June 08, 2009

a traveling oz boy: red dog

On a red stone in Dampier, Australia, there's a statue of a cattledog-looking fellow, in motion, ready to go. This statue honors Red Dog, who during his life (1971 - Nov 1979) moved past two owners to become his own dog. The greater community took him in, fed and cared for him, gave him a bank account and a sports club membership. Meanwhile he went where the dry western winds took him, until the day he died -- apparently of poison (there's always someone, isn't there?).


Louis de Bernières wrote the book Red Dog after seeing his statue and learning his story: read the review in the Guardian newspaper here. Wikipedia on Red Dog here.

2 comments:

Karen Jo said...

That's an interesting story. It's a shame that somebody felt that they had to poison him.

curator said...

Isn't it? But so often someone does. I'm only consoled by the affection is community had for him (did you see the monument?).