Kierke 🐺

During World War II, a little Yorkshire terrier named Smoky used to visit wounded servicemen in military hospitals and entertain them with tricks. She's now remembered as the first recorded therapy dog. Smoky was found in an abandoned foxhole in New Guinea in 1944 and taken in by Bill Wynne, a photographer serving in the US Army Air Forces. She stayed with him throughout the war, and Bill taught her all kinds of tricks, like walking a tightrope and riding a tiny scooter. She even helped run a communications line through a narrow pipe beneath an airfield. They both made it home after the war, and Smoky kept performing for another decade.