SOLDIERS' PETS UNDER FIRE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 262, 1 August 1919, Page 5

SOLDIERS' PETS UNDER FIRE

ADVENTURES OF "POILTJ," THE MASCOT LICN.

Since the aninistice there has 'been no little curiosity among demobilised raon as to the fate of the various ani- ! male which different unite of the Army carried with them as mascote (states a "Daily News" special correspondent). Many of these pete, it appears, have found their way into private collections. Four of them—a lion, a bear, a oheep dog, and a Itussian wolfhound—are now comfortably housed in the private "Zoo" of Mr. G. Tyrwhitt Drake, ex-Mayor of Maidetone, at.Cobtreo Manor, believed to have been the original Dingley Dell of Dickensian fame, a picturesque house and grounds two miles out from the county town of Kent. At the invitation of Mr. Drake, I saw the four mascots during an inspection of the largest private collection of carnivora in Britain, on which London and Manchester "Zoos" sometimes draw for their exhibits. "Poihi," the lion, hae -had the most interesting career of the quartet. Hβ has "done his .bit" under fire 'in the trenches while serving as mascot of the' 19th Division. Born in captivity, he was bought when three months old at a Rod Cross auction sale' in Paris for many thousands of francs. The . purchaser, itn English lady, presented him to General Bridges as a mascot for "the 19th." From March until October, 1917, Poilu was with the division at the front. AVhenever the division moved he was accommodated in a crate on a motor-lorry, and as soon as it took up a position either in the front or support lines Poilu was quartered in a wire cage. He was affectionately attached ' to the General's aide-de-camp, end when allowed out on parole frequently followed him into the trenches. He was not in the least afraid of enemy' shells—not even of "whizzbangs"—but 'during road transport he was much perturbed by the buzzing of the engines of motor-lorries—the only sound to which he could not accustom himself. But one day General Bridges was wounded, and there came another General, who. realising that Poilu was growing out of the pet stage, decided he would bo safer in "Blighty." Poilu'e last adventure was in a torpedo boat crossing to England, when heavy seas smashed his crate and drenched | him. Hie life at Dingley Dell is very placid, but he has proved less docile than some of the other inmates. "Perhaps he has shell-shock," smilingly suggested Mr. Drake. ''Cocky," the black Canadian bear mascot, was picked up by a Canadian battalion when en route for Halifax on tbe way to this country. Ho was bought at a wayside station from an Indian, and brought to this country while 6till young. ' On Cocky's arrival at Maidetone. Mr. Drake naturally asked the guard of the train if he had a crate for tho animal, lie was surprised next moment to see a Canadian soldier walking along the platform with Cooky on a lead, and to learn that the bear had travelled in a third-class compartment from Folkestone. Cocky has no record of active service, nor has "Tag.' the eheep dog mascot of the Army Veterinary Corps, or "Borzois," the ' Russian wolfhound which was formaly the pet of tlhe old 11th Boyal West Kents.