RAGS

Rags was born in the Montmartre section of Paris in about 1916 and spent the first few years of his life living on the streets. On Bastille Day 1918, Rags followed an American soldier named James Donovan, who was in Paris on leave; Donovan took Rags back to camp, where the dog became a mascot to the men. The US didn’t make use of trained dispatch dogs but Donovan was able to train Rags to carry messages. Ultimately, Rags proved significantly valuable in not only alerting the men to incoming shells but especially in carrying messages which saved the lives of countless numbers of men, under shell fire and bullets, and in some battles changed the course of the war, as described in Grant Hayter-Menzies’ book, ‘From Stray Dog to World War I Hero: The Paris Terrier Who Joined the First Division’. Rags died in March 1936, age 20, and was buried in an animal cemetery outside Washington DC, wearing his medals and attended by officers of rank. Rags was given the Purple Poppy Award in September 2025 by the National Service Animals Monument, Inc.