Yappy 150th Anniversary Greyfriars Bobby, the loyal dog who slept by his dead master’s grave, and let’s put more animals on pedestals.
There were pipes and prayers to mark the milestone in the Edinburgh kirkyard.
And I dare say a whisky or two in his memory at the local inn, named after the West Skye Terrier who Walt Disney brought to the world.
Bobby’s statue is, of course, the best in the Scottish capital, nay the world.
And, yes, those no-name figures of Empire should be taken off their plinths.
Replaced by popular and cultural figures of our age and recent memory.
Pets on plinths
And let’s be radical here… women.
And animals.
So here’s our menagerie of all creatures great and small.
And on the grounds that we’ve got the best wee doggie, here in Scotland.
And that all God’s creatures have a place in my choir let’s sing the praises of…
The Puck stops here
King Puck, Killorglin, Ireland, Now we’re not acting the goat here.
And I’m all about the goats, from my time racing them in Tobago.
In Kerry, in the south of Ireland they have been crowning a goat and throwing a festival around it since the 17th century.
When a goat alerted the village of Oliver Cromwell’s coming.
King Puck is in truth a better fit than any of the chinless wonder monarchs England imposed on them.
Before they broke free a hundred years ago.
On the Bosfurus
Tombili, Istanbul: And no, I’ve not lost my dictionary… and if I had I’d always return to the book section of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.
Cats have a special place in the hearts of Turks, and none more so than diva Tombili.
Tombili became a global hit after she was photographed reclining on a pavement… give her some Kite-Kat turkey treats.
Bear with us here
Winnipeg the Bear, Canada: The silly willy-nilly all stuffed with fluff is, of course, more prone to napping than scrapping.
This is the real Winnipeg, a Canadian military mascot bear cub, whom AA Milne and Christopher Robin visited at London Zoo.
The Wolf of Rome
Capitoline Wolf, Rome: And where’s a she-wolf when you need her?
Rome, that’s where. And lucky that she was for Romulus and Remus.
Because she rescued the babes from the Tiber and they went on to found Rome.
The Romans have never forgotten, and you’ll see fountains adorned with wolf taps around the city.
While they’ll wish each other well with the time-honoured greeting: ‘In bocca al lupi (in the mouth of the wolf).
Those wacky Germans
The Town Musicians of Bremen, Germany: And why celebrate one when you can have four?
The story goes that four old domesticated animals, a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster, escape their mistreatment.
To go in search of their fortune in Bremen as musicians, obvs.
They get distracted by a house robbery, take over the gaff and live there happily ever after.
And so as we say Yappy 150th Anniversary Greyfriars Bobby and all your furry and feathered friends.
All of whom are deserving of being pets on plinths.
