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Dogs contribute so much to our everyday lives. They also have accomplished amazing feats throughout history. From heroes to actors to loyal companions. Many dogs are known to this day for what they brought to us. Let's look at some of those dogs and the joy, love, talent, and bravery they held in their hearts.
You might’ve heard the name Balto from the famous animated movie, but this hero was a real life husky too! Balto was an accomplished sled dog and helped to save lives. An isolated town in Alaska called Nome, was in danger of suffering a diphtheria epidemic. While nowadays most people are vaccinated against this deadly disease, in 1925 they did not have easy access to the medicine. The closet medicine to fight diphtheria was located in Anchorage, 537 miles away. The only transportation was by dog sled. A series of dog sled teams worked to transport the medicine to Nome. Balto helped to lead the final leg of the mission and successfully guided his team through treacherous conditions and freezing temperatures. Balto was praised as a hero.
One of the most famous dogs in cinema history was played by a dog named Terry. Terry starred in The Wizard of Oz as Toto. After being abandoned as a puppy, Terry was adopted by a German immigrant named Carl Spitz, the unofficial dog-trainer of Hollywood. He trained Terry to be a canine actress and she starred in 17 films throughout her life.
Originally rescued by an American soldier during World War I, Rin Tin Tin moved to the United States after the war. He caught the eye of a filmmaker when they saw his impressive 12-foot high jump at a dog show. That became the start of Rin Tin Tin’s impressive film career. Rin Tin Tin became the star of nearly 30 films and was the unofficial mascot of Warner Bros Studios after he saved them from bankruptcy when they were just a small studio.
Hachiko was a Japanese Akita who became famous for his fierce loyalty. Every day he would go to the train station and wait for his owner, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University, to come back each day. Even after his owner sadly passed away, Hachiko still went to the train station every day to wait for him. Hachiko now has multiple statues to commemorate his loyalty and devotion.
Owney was a friendly stray dog who became a mascot of the postal service. Owney loved mailbags and followed them all over the world. He would follow postal wagons, then he started boarding mail trains. He even boarded some steam ships to follow the mail bags around. He traveled to Europe and Asia and across the United States. The postal workers who knew him considered him a good luck charm. Although mail trains were known to crash often, Owney’s mail trains never did. He always arrived safely with his mailbags. Mail clerks began putting medals on his collar to mark each location he visited. They eventually got him a vest when his collar got too full. Owney eventually got 372 medals to mark his travels!
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