My Dog, Cat

Yorkshire terriers may be the cutest dogs in the world. Usually weighing no more than 10 pounds, today they are lap dogs (or purse dogs!).

Thought to be a cross between Skye and black-and-tan terriers, with a little Maltese and Dandie Dinmont thrown in for good measure, the Yorkie breed traces its roots back to the Middle Ages, when English royalty wanted to keep commoners from hunting in their game forests. They did this by making sure peasants didn’t own any hunting hounds. A delegation from the King would ride from village to village with a board that had a small hole cut in it, about seven inches in diameter. Any dog too big to fit through the hole was either confiscated or killed.

But the villagers were a lot smarter than the King gave them credit for being. They began to breed tiny terriers who would tackle badgers and foxes twice their size in a hunt – and win! Thus the Yorkie, thought of today as the pampered pooch of the rich and famous, really began as a working dog for the working class. Yorkshire terriers were developed as a distinct breed over 100 years ago in the West Riding area of Yorkshire, England. They have long silky coats that hang down over their dark button eyes if not either pulled back with a bow or trimmed. They are fast and smart, packing an amazing amount of pure dog into a very small package.

My Dog, Cat was inspired by my own Yorkie,  Jessie.  When artist True Kelly came onboard as illustrator (you can find more of her illustrations in Lois Lowry’s Stay), a canine hero was born. 

Yorkies in History

In the 19th century sport of “ratting” or “rat-baiting,” dogs were “handicapped” by their size.

“The local pub was a likely place to see this sport and matches were arranged so that the heavier the dog was, the more rats he had to kill. Usually a champion ratter had to kill as many rats as there were pounds in his weight. The dog disposing of his quota the quickest was the winner. This put rather a premium on small dogs, and breeds were developed for this sport.” –The Complete Book of the Dog, by Robert Leighton, copyright 1922.

The Yorkshire terrier gained fame as “Toto” in L. Frank Baum’s 1900 classic Wizard of Oz with illustrations by W.W. Denslow (of his own pet Yorkie!). Fame struck again with Greyfriar’s Bobby, written in 1912 by Eleanor Atkinson, based on a true story. The 1939 Oz film changed Toto to a Cairn terrier and the 1961 Disney movie Greyfriars Bobby changed Bobby to a Skye terrier. They used bigger breeds, arguably easier to see. But both dogs started out as Yorkies.

Pocket Hero

A Yorkie named “Smokey” served with American troops in the Pacific theater of World War II. She belonged to U.S. Army Corporal Bill Wynne. Servicemen on New Guinea voted her “The Mascot of the South Pacific.”

She was found in a foxhole near Nabxab, New Guinea in Feb. 1944. At first her rescuers thought she must belong to the Japanese. But Smokey didn’t understand commands in either Japanese or English. So American troops adopted her, and she became the mess mate of Corporal Bill Wynne of Cleveland, Ohio. She was seven inches tall and weighed four pounds. Smokey lived through 150 air raids and 12 air-sea rescues, but she didn’t become a hero in her own right until she helped out during the building of a crucial airfield for Allied war planes.

According to Bill Wynne, an officer approached him with a request: “Bill, we have a long pipe to run a wire through under the airfield. The pipe is eight inches in diameter and 70 feet long. We’re stumped on how to get the wire through. Could Smokey do it?”

The pipe was corrugated steel in sections. At the joinings, dust sifted in. In some places the pipe was half full of dirt. Corporal Wynne tied a string to the wire on one end and Smokey’s collar on the other. Then he ran to the other end of the culvert. At first, Smokey logged false starts, going into the pipe but turning back. When Wynne called her loudly from the other end, she finally started through. About 10 feet in, the string got caught on a rough spot, but Wynne kept calling her. Somehow, the tiny dog got unsnagged. Dust was rising from the shuffle of her paws, and no one could see her anymore. Wynne called and whistled and pleaded, until he heard a faint whimpering. Now only 15 feet away, Smokey broke into a run. Her reward came when she could jump back into Wynne’s arms. And the airfield finally had the communication line it needed.

by True Kelley

An Associated Press article told the story of Oliver, a 10-pound Yorkie in Buffalo, N.Y. Ollie heard a commotion outside and pushed through the screen door of his home to investigate. He found an 80-pound Akita on the sidewalk out front, harassing an elderly woman. Ollie snapped and growled, until the Akita came after him – then, ran under a car to escape. If you’ve read My Dog, Cat, you’ll see how one of Cat’s adventures was hatched.