Our writing motivation this week is the true story of
Caesar, the Rescue Dog.
Caesar the Anzac Dog, whose collar is held at Auckland Museum, has a Patricia Stroud book written in his honour (Stroud's great uncle was an owner of the dog).Caesar led an Auckland parade before his battalion left for the war in 1916.
Brave Caesar was on the front line - he was a trained rescue dog and helped stretcher-bearers find the wounded at night when lanterns could get the rescuers killed. When Caesar found a wounded soldier, he was trained to look for an identifying feature such as a coat, hat or helmet and to carry this back to a handler.
Caesar would do this again and again and he is responsible for saving many lives. Unfortunately Caesar died in action but it is a wonderful story of an unsung Kiwi hero and a little known aspect of the First World War
Caesar was reported killed after losing both eyes in November 1917.
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