Run, Spot, Run

Yorkies Go Down in History!

Yorkies are shown in the picture, above right, approaching a caged rat before a match. In the 19th century sport of "ratting"or "rat-baiting," dogs were handicapped by their size. "The local pub was a likely place to see this sport and matches were arranged so that the heavier the dog was, the more rats he had to kill. Usually, a champion ratter had to kill as many rats as there were pounds in his weight, the dog disposing of his quota the quickest being the winner. This put rather a premium on small dogs and breeds were developed especially for this sport." -The Complete Book of the Dog, a late 19th century English reference book by Robert Leighton

This is one big reason why Yorkies were bred to be small.

Pictured above: two W.W. Denslow illustrations from L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz," Rand McNally & Co, 1900

The Yorkshire Terrier gained fame as the canine character, "Toto," in L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz." Toto was based on illustrator W.W. Denslow's own pet Yorkie. Another famous Yorkie was "Greyfriars Bobby," the Scottish dog who waited faithfully for many years by his master's grave. In Hollywood movies featuring this dog, Toto "The Wizard of Oz," 1939) was played by a Cairn terrier and Greyfriars Bobby ("Greyfriars Bobby," 1961) by a Skye terrier. But both the Toto of Denslow's original illustrations and the real-life Bobby were Yorkies.

Smokey, the most famous of Yorkie war dogs (yes, there have been others!) was found in a foxhole near Nabxab on New Guinea in Feb. 1944. At first, her rescuers thought she must belong to the Japanese and took her to a nearby prisoner-of-war camp. But it turned out she didn't understand commands in either Japanese or English. The year-old Yorkie soon ended up as the mess mate of Corporal Bill Wynne of Cleveland, Ohio. She was seven inches tall and weighed four pounds.  Smokey lived through 150 air raids on New Guinea and was a crew member on 12 air-sea rescues. She became a hero in her own right when she helped build a crucial airfield for Allied war planes.

Bill Wynne, himself, told this story when he appeared on NBC-TV after the war: (An officer of the Communications Section came up and said) `Bill, we have a long pipe to run a wire through under the airstrip. It's eight inches high and seventy feet long and we are stumped as to how to get the wire through. The wire simply has to go through and we wondered if Smokey could do it?'...(when we got to the airfield) I knelt and looked through the pipes and saw that soil had sifted through each of the corrugated sections at the joinings, and in some places the pipe was half filled...in some places, Smokey would have only four inches of headway. I tied a string (tied to the wire) to Smokey's collar and ran to the other end of the culvert...(Smokey) made a few steps in and then ran back. `Come, Smokey,' I said sharply, and she started through again. When she was about 10 feet in, the string caught up and she looked over her shoulder as much as to say `what's holding us up there?' The string loosened from the snag and she came on again. By now the dust was rising from the shuffle of her paws as she crawled through the dirt and mold and I could no longer see her. I called and pleaded, not knowing for certain whether she was coming or not. At last, about 20 feet away, I saw two little amber eyes and heard a faint whimpering sound...at 15 feet away, she broke into a run. We were so happy at Smokey's success that we patted and praised her for a full five minutes.''

Smokey slept on a blanket made from a green felt card table cover in Bill's tent and shared his C-rations and an occasional can of Spam.  She lived a long life after the war, traveling all over the world with Wynne and giving demonstrations of her remarkable skills, which included walking a tightrope -- blindfolded!

Yorkies today are every bit as tough as their ancestors. A recent Associated Press article told the story of Oliver, a 10 lb. Yorkie in Buffalo, N.Y., who heard a commotion outside and pushed open the screen door of his home to investigate. He found an 80 lb. Akita on the sidewalk out front, attacking an elderly woman, and Oliver began to snap and growl at the bigger dog. The Akita broke off his attack on the old lady and came after Oliver, who scampered under a car just as neighbors came to the rescue. If you've read "My Dog, Cat," you can easily see where some of the ideas for Cat's adventures were hatched.

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