‘Ginger’ – Sgt. ‘Stubby’ Would Be Proud

The 2011 First Company Governor’s Foot Guard “Stubby Award for Canine Heroism” was given to “Ginger” – an affectionate Labrador Retriever, Boxer, Rottweiler mix owned by Dan and Ann Marie Cewe, for her Jan. 14 intervention during an attempted robbery at Glenwood Wine & Spirits Outlet in Clinton. According to police reports, she ran towards the robber and chased him out of the business. Ginger likes peanut butter bones and fetching tennis balls. In the store she amiably greets customers and keeps the owners and employees company.

The First Company Governor’s Foot Guard is the oldest continuously serving military organization in the U.S. The unit sponsors The First Company Governor’s Foot Guard Athletic Association Dog Show and Obedience Trials at the XL Center in Hartford, where the 2011 Stubby Award was presented.

This AKC-sanctioned all-breed obedience and junior showmanship event helps fund two scholarships given to pre-veterinary students at the University of Connecticut; one attending the School of Agriculture and another attending the School of Natural Resources. More than 140 different dog breeds were represented from the U.S. and Canada. Show superintendent is MB-F, Inc. of Greensboro, NC, one of the premier dog show producers and managers in the country.

The organization’s match show is held later in the season at the First Company Governor’s Horse Guard reservation in Avon.

Sergeant Stubby (1916 to March 16, 1926) was the most decorated war dog of World War I and was the only dog ever promoted to sergeant through service during combat. (Stubby was found on the Yale College campus in 1917 by John Robert Conroy and is of an unknown breed, though some speculate that he was part Boston terrier, part pit bull. Others say different.)

About the Stubby Award: In February 1918, “Stubby,” a mixed breed pup adopted by a member of the First Company Governor’s Foot Guard and smuggled overseas by his owner, saved soldiers from sure death by alerting them to a gas attack. By the end of the war, after being wounded multiple times and performing other heroic actions such as finding and holding a German spy for allied troops, Stubby was promoted to sergeant and received several awards. Today, the First Company Governor’s Foot Guard continues to recognize special animals by presenting the Stubby Award to dogs involved in acts of heroism in Connecticut.

For more information see www.governorsfootguard.com/dogshow. Members serve under the command of Major Commandant William Oefinger.

Editor’s note: More about the 2011 dog show with show photos and some of the wonderful folks we met linked here.