Welcome to Herding Bronze Cats

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, who they called Vicksburg has a grave marker on the shores of Australia. My grandfather was in the Milwaukee National Guard in 1942, and he and his unit went to Vicksburg to be trained to fight in World War II. In Vicksburg he saved the hungry dog from the streets, and smuggled it onto a ship when the unit went to New Guinea. The dog became something of a mascot, shared men's meager meals and took his turn on guard duty. Vicksburg was killed by a falling tree during road construction, but the men got together enough money to place a grave marker in Australia, where they took occasional shore leave. That's the short version. When I get some documents and photos from my family I'll write a whole blog entry on Vicksburg, my grandfather and the rest of the men who cared enough about him to buy him a gravestone.
  Many people don't realize that these monuments even exist, but there many of them around the country and the world. So many in fact that I've had to limit how I think about them to even consider a blog on the subject. I'm especially interested in those monuments and graves that are public, and dedicated to an individual, real animal. Basically, I'm more interested in a statue of a racehorse that happens to have a jockey seated on him, than the general who happens to be astride a warhorse. That doesn't mean I'll never talk about a pet cemetery, a statue erected to a dog breed, or similar, but it won't be my focus. And of course, I can still see myself writing about the warhorse in the right circumstances.
  I hope that this blog will be a reason for me to travel and look at some of the sites that I'm describing, but I can't realistically expect to fly halfway around the world to see all of them. That means I'll be visiting some of the sites I can drive to (I live in Denver CO). I'll also be writing based on research about sites that I haven't visited. I hope that this gets you get excited about the animal monument near you and you go visit them. If you do let me know, I'd love to include your experiences.
Soon I'll be putting up a list soon that will contain all the monuments that I know about. Because of who and where I am these are going to be biased heavily toward places in the US, and the English speaking world. If you know of sites that I might be interested in please let me know, and I'll update the list regularly and pin it where it's easy to access. I would love for it to be as comprehensive as possible.