Herding Bronze Cats

Gravestones of the royal corgis overlooking Sandringham House. Daily Mail photo The last of a legacy died over the weekend. Willow, the last royal corgi of the Queen's own line was put to sleep. Willow suffered from a cancer-related illness. Taking stories from the headlines and talking about personal pet cemeteries is a little different from what I envision this blog covering. But, while its in the news, I'd like to take a minute to talk about the  Queen's corgis, and their graves. The royal corgis and Her Majesty's knees, circa 2012. Vanity Fair Photo Elizabeth and Margaret with Dookie. Royal Collection Trust Photo Queen Elizabeth II's love of corgis is well recorded. They often announce her arrival by trotting in just before she enters a room, and she has called them a part of the royal family. The dogs have roamed the castle since 1933 when she was young. When her father (who would be George the VI) was Duke of York he invited a corgi breeder to s...

Shep's Grave, "Part Shepard Mostly Affection." Author's Collection Shep, the Turnpike Dog The first memorial that I'd like to talk about is Shep's grave in Colorado. This site is near me so I've visited a few times prior to starting this blog. Shep's story is especially interesting to me as someone interested in the monuments since the community actually took the care to move it, preserve it and even interpret it years after Shep was gone. Here's his story. The Denver-Boulder Turnpike was championed by business interests North of Denver as a faster way to bring in visitors, workers and freight. The toll road connects Denver on the South, with Boulder on the North, which was just beginning to shift from a sleepy community to a national center for science and technology. When the Turnpike opened on January 20, 1952, by most accounts Shep was already a fixture. It's difficult to pin down exactly where the dog came from. If we co...

  View the list Alphabetically.     View the list Geographically. This is my list of known memorials to animals. I update it regularly. This list includes ONLY sites that are dedicated to an individual real (or believed to be real) animal. If you know of any memorials, even ones that don't fit this list, please send me some info on them. I keep my own files of public art dedicated to war dogs, racing horses, etc. and fictional animals too. Someday I'll publish those lists too.   

Welcome to Herding Bronze Cats   I'd like to start with a little bit about why I'm writing this blog, what I want it to be and what I hope to accomplish. I'm hoping to use this space to explore the public monuments and memorials erected to animals. New York City's Central Park has a statue dedicated to Balto, a sled dog who delivered medicine in Alaska, Tokyo has at least two statues to Hachiko, a dog so loyal he waited ten years for his master to return after he died of a heart attack. I am fascinated by the idea that we can be so affected by the animals that live with us that we memorialize them after (or sometimes before) their death. Why do we memorialize them in stone and bronze, often elevating them even above the people who "owned" them in the public's memory?   My interest in animal monuments may rise from my family history. Since I was young I have heard the story of my grandfather saving a dog from the streets of Vicksburg, Missouri. That dog,...