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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 !

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

jet of iada

He was razor-keen, alert, and a good Liverpudlian to have on your side. He was a shiny black Alsatian named Jet of Iada, and his search training freed 150 Londoners from the rubble of the Blitz in WWII. If you were still alive, he would give his all to find you.

This page from the Liverpool Museums tells you a bit more about this little-known four-legged war hero, who won a Dickin Medal for his rescues and rests now in a nice park in his home town of Liverpool. As his owner's daughter recalls it, "My mother (kennel owner Mrs. Babcock Cleaver) had been in touch with Liverpool City Council to ask what they could do? Whether the park would give him a site because Calderstones Park meant so much to her, and everything was set in motion. It was a very very satisfying day, sad, but satisfying, because he was a special person." (emphasis mine - Curator)

She speaks of a few more memories of this brave fellow, and you can read those here. Plus there is a treasure trove of information on Jet at this site,which is written by another Cleaver family member. Wonderful.

2 comments:

parlance said...

An interesting link.
I saw a book in our university bookshop today called something like "animals are people too" or something like that. I browsed it but didn't buy it because it was about the way humans treat animals and I couldn't handle the cruelty it exposed.

Until we truly realise that we are just one type of "person" on this planet, we won't change.

curator said...

Hi Parlance, -- I too have a difficult time grappling with the cruelty to animals about which I read in history and society.