01/22/2025
It Is National Yorkie day!
One Yorkie was a war hero.
In World War II, a Yorkie named Smoky is credited with saving the lives of soldiers by dragging a communications cable through an 8-inch-wide, 60-foot-long drainage culvert. She is also thought to be the world’s first therapy dog, visiting wounded soldiers in hospitals. Smoky was found by an American soldier in 1944 in a Papua New Guinea jungle, and when he brought the little dog back to the barracks, U.S. Army Corporal William Wynne took her under his wing. He later wrote a book about Smoky called Yorkie Doodle Dandy. There are six U.S.-based memorials honoring Smoky, including one in AKC’s Museum of the Dog, and one international memorial in Australia.
