Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?Ĭhoosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. (timeline, research notes, bibliography, index) Conroy maintained a scrapbook about Stubby, so the text is enlivened with period photographs, including those of Stubby in his uniform.ĭog lovers and budding military historians alike should find this canine perspective on the Great War an absorbing read. Bausum successfully weaves Stubby’s astonishing story together with information about the war and reveals how connections between people and animals brought an element of humanity into the difficulties of war. At war’s end, Stubby returned home with Conroy with honors, no longer a stowaway. He was even credited with capturing a German soldier. Once back in action, he proved invaluable in finding enemy wounded and managing prisoners of war. He even suffered an injury that necessitated a stint in the Army hospital-where he went to work boosting patients’ morale. He became a working dog, hunting rats that plagued the trenches, among other duties. Stubby even managed to charm the commanding officer, who allowed the dog to stay, not the last to fall under his spell. Many of them reacted favorably to the dog, but none more than James Robert Conroy, who smuggled the animal onto the ship to France. Stubby, a mixed-breed dog so named due to his stump of a tail, hung around the Army reservists training at Yale in 1917. In a story that reads like fiction, a remarkable bond between a soldier and his dog provides a unique look at World War I.
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