When Lord Byron, the famously flamboyant aristocratic poet of
the 19th century Romantic Movement, discovered he couldn’t bring
along his beloved Newfoundland, named Boatswain to Trinity College, he adopted a bear he called Bruin, instead. Although Bruin followed Lord Byron around in much the
same way as a dog would, the poet’s
devotion was never more evident than at the end of his dog Boatswain’s life,
when Lord Byron nursed his canine friend without caution
for himself, until the dog succumbed to rabies.
“There is pleasure in the pathless
woods, there is rapture in the lonely
shore, there is society where none
intrudes, by the deep sea, and the music in its roar; I love not man the less,
but nature more.” ~ Lord Byron
Tycho Brahe was a 16th-century astronomer who, after witnessing the highly
doubted occurrence of a solar eclipse, became forever enamored with stars and
measurements of alignment in the solar system. Adamant about the correctness of
his mathematical formulas, he lost part of his nose in a sword duel with his third cousin, who dared to disagree.
Nonetheless, Brahe’s lengthy notes would
later be used in the groundwork of Sir Isaac
Newton. But in the meantime, he had an Elk, with a penchant
for alcohol. The elk, an agreeable sort, was known to frequently out-drink the
guests at dinner parties until one night after too many beers Brahe’s congenial friend
tumbled down the stairs and died. ∞
The Chicago
Tribune once named the original movie ‘Benji’ the
best family film of all time, and this was before the little guy went on to
become the second (behind Lassie) animal ever to be inducted into the Animal
Actors Hall of Fame. When trainer Frank Inn adopted
Higgins from a shelter, he couldn’t have
known the dog, who also played in Petticoat Junction, would go on to such
fame, or have foreseen the phenomenal impact a shelter dog would have on the
pet-adopting public. Subsequently, the part of Benji when not an offspring of
Higgins, was played by shelter dogs.
Have you ever lost a
treasured pet? Would you drink with an Elk? Would you, or do you have a shelter
pet?
