Yorkie Doodle Dandy

The Smoky war dog memorial in the Cleveland Metroparks (Rocky River Reservation – Lakewood, OH) will be featured tonight (Thursday, May 23rd, 2013) at 9PM EDT/8PM CDT on the Travel Channel! The segment will be included as a part of tonight’s episode of “Monumental Mysteries”, hosted by Don Wildman. If you can’t catch it live (or set your DVR to record it), you may be able to watch it online later if the Travel Channel posts the episode on their website like they have with past episodes of Monumental Mysteries.

If you like the story, please consider buying a copy of Bill Wynne’s book, Yorkie Doodle Dandy!

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Bill Wynne and his Yorkies, Smoky Too and Sadie, had a wonderful meeting with the world’s smallest working dog, Lucy and her owner Sally yesterday. Lucy weighs in at just 2.5 pounds and was named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s smallest working dog for her work as a therapy dog. The meeting occurred at the Smoky and Dogs of All Wars memorial (and Smoky’s final resting place) in the Rocky River Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks. Lucy and Sally arrived in Cleveland, OH with a wonderful TV crew from British TV studio ITV, who were there to film the meeting for a TV show called “Super Tiny Animals.”

Head over to cleveland.com to read more about the meeting. Smoky and Lucy both have their own pages on Facebook, so please consider “liking” them to receive updates via Facebook!

Check back later for some photos of the event on this blog and Smoky’s Facebook page!

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Dorothy from the St. Thomas Dog Blog posted a wonderful review of Bill Wynne’s book, Yorkie Doodle Dandy. You can buy the book on Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.

Thanks, Dorothy!

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We’re pleased to share a story about the Smoky memorial in the Rocky River Metroparks (near Cleveland) that was broadcast nationally on NPR’s Morning Edition show on August 3, 2011! In the clip, Paul Cox of Cleveland NPR member station WCPN talks about Smoky and the memorial on NPR’s “Honey, Stop The Car!” series about roadside memorials across the country. Mr. Cox also interviews Bill Wynne (Smoky’s owner/trainer/companion) and his dear friend, Jim Strand, whose tireless efforts allowed the memorial to be created.

Listen to the clip below, or visit npr.org for a text transcript or to download an .mp3 of the clip. You can also see a few Smoky pictures and some other memorials featured on the “Honey, Stop The Car!” series.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Many thanks to the folks at NPR and Cleveland member station WCPN 90.3 for the Smoky memorial piece, and allowing us to post the audio and a link to the NPR website. And very special thanks goes out to Jim Strand, for everything he’s done.

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Below is a recent KTNV channel 13 Las Vegas interview with talented sculptor Susan Bahary. Susan Bahary created the Smoky sculpture for the war dog memorial in the Cleveland Metroparks (Rocky River reservation). The interview features the Smoky sculpture, as well as some of Susan Bahary’s other war dog pieces.

NOTE: 3/23/10: This video is currently unavailable, and we are working to obtain another copy if it to share with all of you.

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Congratulations to Bill – he is now officially a member of the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame!  Over 300 people have been inducted since 1977, including Bob Hope, John Glenn, Jesse Owens, Dr. Sabin, Lillian Gish, the Mills Brothers, Bob Feller, Woodie Hayes, three former Ohio Governers and Supreme Court Justices.  This is quite an accomplishment for Bill, and he is very honored to receive this recognition.

The induction ceremony took place on May 26, 2009 in Columbus, OH.  The keynote speakers for the event included:

• Barbara Riley – Director, Ohio Dept. of Aging
• Armond Budish – Speaker, Ohio House Representatives
• Ohio Governor Ted Strickland
• Alan Burnett – Director, Area Agency on Aging Region 9, Inc.

Below is a video of the induction ceremony, which also included the Elder Caregiver Awards Ceremony.  The video has been set to start at Bill’s section at the tail end of the ceremony (with a last name starting with W, Bill has done a lot of waiting at events like this!)  Governor Strickland speaks at 00:06:45 (that’s 6 minutes and 45 seconds) through the video for those of you that want to jump to that spot (after watching Bill of course!)

Credit for providing this wonderful video goes to The Ohio Channel. Thanks especially to Sarah Duffy. You can purchase a copy of this video on DVD or VHS tape here.

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Hi everyone – here is the clip that was played during the 2008 Westminster Dog Show on the USA network.  Thanks very much to David Frei for permission to post this video clip on our web site!

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Here’s a video of Bill Wynne (along with Susan Bahary – sculptor of the Smoky memorial in the Cleveland Metroparks) from a 2007 trip to NYC:

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Welcome to SmokyWarDog.com – the official site for Smoky, the canine hero of WWII. This new blog format will allow us to keep everyone updated on the latest Smoky news!

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