Another Travelling Canine - Red Dog

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I wrote recently about a South Australian dog who travelled the railways far and wide areound the end of the 19th century. Many years later Western Australia also had its travelling dog. His story also became a movie which portrayed the wanderings of the red kelpie named Red Dog. The movie was an unprecedented success with Koko, the dog portraying Red Dog, attracting far more attention than his human co-stars. After the success of the movies, kelpies became the flavour of the month. They are not, however, suited as pets. They are high energy and need to work. Most are used for herding cattle and sheep. Red Dog roamed free throughout the mining areas of the Pilbara region. His origins are a bit vague and several people laid claim to having owned him at some time. In the end he was his own dog, but had hundreds of 'owners', mining men who contributed from their pay packets to pay his union fees and vet bills. Red Dog hitched rides up and down the countryside and even got as far as Perth. He had a train stop to pick him up. In the middle of nowhere, a truck driver would see him sitting at the side of the road. On opening the door, the dog would leap in and settle down. He would get out when the truck arrived at its destination or bark when he reached where he wanted to go. On the bus taking the miners out to work, he would commandeer the front seat and refuse to move. When locked up by the Roebourne ranger he was released in the dead of night by persons unknown. He was an irreverent dog, attending church on Sundays but lifting his leg at each pew on the way in. He was also a thief, adept at stealing sausages or a steak from barbecues. In the end he picked up a strychnine bait and vets were unable to save him. Such was his fame and popularity by this time that a memorial was erected in his memory. This is situated in Dampier. He was buried between Cossack and Roebourne in the red dirt he pounded so tirelessly. A great Australian character. Resubmitted after a few edits from a Bubblews post. Image courtesy of Wikimedia: Photographer Nachoman-au Cc-by-sa-2.5,2.0,1.0 [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons