05/15/2026
With Memorial Day being this month, we wanted to take time to remember the animals that have served.
Today we honor Rags, a small shaggy mixed-breed, who was found on on the streets on Bastille Day of 1918 by Private James Donovan, a Signal Corps specialist with the American 1st Infantry. Private Donovan stumbled over what appeared to be a pile of rags, until the rags gave a sad whimper and a small bark. Within two weeks, both soldier and dog were sent off to the 2nd Battle of the Marne. Donovan's job was to string communications wire.📧 When the wires were ripped and shellfire was still incoming, the only way to get messages through was by runner. But runners were frequently killed or wounded. Donovan realized that a little dog could do the job and survive💪. Rags soon learned to take messages towards the sound of the American guns. Near the end of the war, Donovan and Rags were in the Argonne Forest, bound in by a thick fog. Rags was sent back with a message. He had just set off when the Germans began firing mustard gas shells. Rags was mildly gassed and hit in the paw with a splinter from a concussion shell. His right ear was badly mangled by this same shell and a needle-like sliver of shell fragment was embedded under his right eye. An American infantryman found him dazed and confused and delivered both the wounded little dog and the message. Donovan had also been gassed, but far more severely. He was carried back to the rear and reunited with his dog. Rags had the shell splinters removed from his paw, but he would remain blind in his right eye and deaf in his right ear for the rest of his life. Donovan was not as fortunate. He died in 1919 from the lingering effects of the mustard gas. Rags was awarded a special ribbon recognizing his wartime service and achievements🎗. His biography took its place among other official records of the Great War. Rags joined his beloved Private Donovan on March 22, 1936 at the remarkable age of twenty years old.
Thank you for your service Rags❤❤
