100 Dogs Who Changed Civilization (12 page)

In front of the Johnson County courthouse in Warrensburg, Missouri, stands a bronze statue commemorating an all-but-forgotten dog named Old Drum. But though the hound in question isn't exactly a household name, the eulogy delivered to commemorate his demise gave rise to one of history's most famous canine-related phrases.

The story begins on October 18, 1869—the night Old Drum met his untimely end. The trusted friend and hunting companion of a farmer named Charles Burden, Old Drum was shot and killed by Samuel Ferguson when he strayed onto the property of Ferguson's uncle, Leonidas Hornsby. Hornsby (who was also the brother-in-law of Old Drum's owner) had lost some sheep to marauding canines and vowed to shoot the first stray dog he caught on his land. Unfortunately for Drum, it happened to be him.

Burden, who considered Old Drum a friend rather than a possession, was beside himself. Refusing to let bygones be bygones, he sued Hornsby for damages. The case wended its way through three trials before it was finally settled on September 23, 1870, at the Court of Common Pleas in Warrensburg. Burden brought in one of the biggest guns in
Missouri jurisprudence to plead his case: George Graham Vest, a soon-to-be U.S. senator who was as talented at oratory as he was skilled in the law. When Vest closed his arguments with a stirring “eulogy” for the deceased dog, there wasn't a dry eye in the courthouse—especially on the jury, which found in favor of the still-bereft Burden.

What sealed the deal? Perhaps it was Vest's elegant turn of phrase. Among the many complimentary things he said about Old Drum in particular and dogs in general, he offered this shining sentence: “The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him and the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog.” Vest, in his roundabout way, coined the phrase “man's best friend.”

The winning speech earned Burden a fairly substantial $50 in damages. Ironically, Old Drum's killer, Samuel Ferguson, was himself gunned down and killed a few years later in Oklahoma.

For decades, one of the most popular meeting places for train travelers passing through Tokyo's Shibuya Station has been the Shibuya Hachikoguchi exit. The spot is the site of a famous statue of Hachiko, a large Akita who is famous in Japan for his faithfulness. For years, at pretty much the same spot that his bronze likeness now occupies, Hachiko waited patiently for his beloved master—a master who could never return to him.

The dog who would become a legend was once the pet of Eisaburo Ueno, a professor at the University of Tokyo's department of agriculture. Every workday morning Hachiko would accompany him to Shibuya Station, and every day at 3:00
P.M.
he would sit quietly on the landing, awaiting his return. But one day in May 1925, the professor fell ill at work and died suddenly. That afternoon, the loyal Hachiko waited dutifully at his usual spot, only to be disappointed when his master failed to step off the train. Disappointed—but not deterred.

For the next eleven years, Hachiko returned to the platform every day at three o'clock, hoping against hope to catch sight of the professor. The dog became a fixture at the station and was even given sleeping quarters in a storeroom. Eventually
the story of the dog reached the newspapers, and Hachiko became a national icon. A popular children's story was based on his life, and in 1934, a bronze statue of him was erected at Shibuya Station. Interestingly, Hachiko himself was on hand for the unveiling. The old dog, in spite of his fame, would keep his lonely vigil until his death on March 8, 1935.

During World War II, the original statue was melted down for use in the Japanese war effort, but a new statue was unveiled in exactly the same spot in 1948, created by the son of the artist who struck the original. Today Hachiko's likeness still waits for his beloved master, unaware that his lonely vigil had important repercussions for his breed. During his lifetime, the Akita was sliding toward extinction. Now, thanks in part to the fame of its best-known representative, it is the national dog of Japan. Hachiko lives on in books and films, and can even be seen, stuffed, at the National Science Museum in Tokyo.

Dogs have chased Frisbees ever since the plastic discs were invented, but it took the work of one exceptional dog to turn this afternoon pastime into a bona fide sport.

The canine in question was named Ashley Whippet. Born on June 4, 1971, Ashley was acquired by Ohio State University (OSU) student Alex Stein when he was just a puppy. Allegedly named after the Ashley Wilkes character in
Gone With the Wind
, with a surname of Whippet because he was, in fact, of the whippet breed, the dog began pursuing Frisbees around the OSU campus at the age of six months. Although other dogs did the same thing, Ashley did it with tremendous élan—streaking after the discs at thirty-five miles per hour (56 km/h), leaping an unbelievable nine feet (3 m) into the air to catch them, and contorting his body into artful, crowd-pleasing poses as he did so. The dog drew audiences wherever he went.

Stein decided to move to Hollywood and get Ashley into show business. Talent agents wouldn't give the pooch the time of day, so the duo took a more direct approach. On August 5, 1974, the Los Angeles Dodgers were set to host the Cincinnati
Reds in front of a national TV audience. Stein bought a ticket and smuggled Ashley into the stadium. At the bottom of the eighth inning, just before the Dodgers came to bat, he and his dog sprinted out to centerfield and started an impromptu round of fetch. The crowd was so amazed that the game ground to a halt. Announcer Joe Garagiola, who was supposed to be talking about baseball, did “play by play” for the dog instead.

For his trouble, Stein was fined $250 and arrested for trespassing. But the dose of national exposure turned Ashley into a canine sports hero. He appeared on
The Tonight Show, Monday Night Football
, and even during halftime at Super Bowl XII. In 1975 the World Frisbee Championships (previously an allhuman affair) inaugurated a “Catch and Fetch” competition for canines—an event Ashley won three years in a row. He so dominated the event that in 1982 it was renamed the Ashley Whippet Invitational. Though Ashley passed on in March 1985, the contest that bears his name still attracts thousands of canine participants.

Many dogs are famous for saving individual lives. But one canine was responsible for rescuing an entire company. This honor belongs to the legendary German shepherd Rin Tin Tin, the four-legged big-screen star whose box office receipts single-handedly saved Warner Bros. from ruin.

It was a miracle that the studio's savior even survived his puppyhood. The dog who would become a celebrity was born in France at the end of World War I, inside an abandoned, bombed-out kennel. United States Army Corporal Lee Duncan found him starving there along with his mother and his four littermates. Duncan, a dog lover, found homes for the mother and three of the pups, but he kept a male and a female for himself. He named them after two French puppet characters: Nanette and Rin Tin Tin.

Nanette died from distemper shortly after she and her brother traveled with Duncan to his Los Angeles home. Duncan worked at a hardware store to make ends meet and spent his spare time training Rin Tin Tin. Convinced that his furry friend had a big future in show business, he wrote a script for him called
Where the North Begins
and offered it and Rin Tin Tin (nicknamed Rinny) to any studio
exec who would give them the time of day.

As it turned out, none of them would. Duncan was turned down again and again. Then, one afternoon, he and Rinny happened to spot a film crew trying to shoot a scene that featured an extremely uncooperative wolf. Duncan offered his dog's services, promising that he could do whatever was asked of him in one take. After much jawboning, the crew decided to give the newcomer a shot. Rinny, as promised, delivered a perfect performance on the first try. A star was born.