– by Virginia Watson-Rouslin –
As we mark the passing century of the First World War, few books have explored the enormous contribution of the more than 60 million animals who played a role in that “Great War.” Now comes a book that reminds us of one exceptional dog who took his place on the battlefield. His name was “Rags.”
Local writer Hayter-Menzies has uncovered this remarkable story of a mutt, mostly a terrier mix, who was found one evening by two AWOL American soldiers on the streets of Montmartre in 1918, a tawdry place of crass commercialization, bar shows and “circuses” exploiting animals. It was also “home” to Rags. Private Jimmy Donovan of the American First Division, Signal Corps thought he’d found a pile of rags, but it was a small dog, soon to be his best friend and ally at the front, and after.
Rags and Donovan became a team. As a signalman, Donovan monitored communication lines between the front and command. Although there was an official, time-consuming procedure for training soldier dogs (estimated at over 70,000), Donovan and Rags didn’t have that luxury. The dog quickly caught on to delivering and receiving messages, racing back and forth across perilous terrain, exploding shells, dead bodies and deep trenches.
Says Menzies: “together Rags and Donovan taught each other just what needed doing in the erratic, symbiotic schoolroom of the battlefield, discovering in each other the helper and friend each never knew he needed.”
Their work saved countless lives. In their last battle, both suffered shrapnel wounds and the effects of mustard gas. Rags would live to be 18, but with one blind eye, a deaf ear and a cough that would trouble him the rest of his life.
Donovan was taken back to the States to an army hospital where he died several years later from his wounds, Rags his faithful attendant. The dog would go on to be celebrated for his accomplishments by the First Division, the U.S. Army and the Humane Society. Eventually he did find a loving home with a military family. His obituary ran in many American newspapers, including the New York Times.
New Releases Available at Tanner’s Books
FICTION
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty Eight Days by Salman Rushdie
Entry Island by Peter May
Girl In The Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz
Lamentation by C.J. Sansom
Family Furnishings by Alice Munro
Jaguar’s Children by John Vaillant
NON-FICTION
Brief Candle In the Dark by Richard Dawkins
Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Debs Of Bletchley Park by Michael Smith
So Anyway by John Cleese
An Astronaut’s Guide To Life by Chris Hadfield
