Red Cross Chat

A slice of history to help celebrate the Dog Days of Summer - it’s the tale of the first ever therapy dog.

Dear Red Cross,

In the March of 1946 issue of the Junior Red Cross News there appeared an article with photos by Red Cross correspondent Dora Jane Hamblin from Manila about my Yorkshire Terrier, Smoky who was doing dog therapy work in military hospitals across the SWPA and Pacific Theater of Operations. Practically all of this was arranged by American Red Cross workers.

You may be interested to know Smoky has been found by Animal Planet Channel research to be the first therapy dog of record. Besides this Smoky is the most famous war dog of WWII and now has six memorials nation wide. The Westminster Dog Show honored her with 21/2 minutes of national TV Time during the Feb 11, 2008 dog show at Madison Square Garden. Her six page story with 10 photos appears in the current America in WWII magazine, (July, ‘08. )

I was wondering if the Red Cross would like an updated story about what happened to the four pound yorkie that was found in a New Guinea foxhole and went on to become, YANK Magazine’s “Champ Mascot of the SWPA ” in 1944 , and AMERICAN magazine’s”Most Useful Dog in America”in 1950 for visiting Military hospitals, ( and civilian hospitals ,orphanages and rest homes.)

It may interest you to know that the therapy dog title was coined 20 years after Smoky began her work and the certifying of therapy dogs by the Delta Society came about in 1974, 30 years after Smoky’s first adventure of going on rounds to visit battlefield casualties from the Biak Is. Invasion in July of 1944.

Such much is happening now for Smoky:

• A black tie Dinner in her honor at the New Yorker Hotel in NYC.
• World War 2 Dogs of War Monument, Yorkie Doodle Dandy, Smoky I
• Smoky (dog) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sincerely,

Bill Wynne
Smoky War Dog