Pet of the week, Rin Tin Tin

Today’s pet of the week is an American icon, the German Shepard, Rin Tin Tin.  If you are of a certain age, you may remember the television series that featured this dog.  Why did I select this dog? I have been reading  a wonderful book written by Susan Orlean.  The title of the book, Rin Tin Tin The Life and Legend

This is what Susan Orlean wrote in the beginning of her book,  “When I was young, my grandfather kept a Rin Tin Tin figurine sitting on his desk. I wanted desperately to play with it, and even more desperately I wanted to have a German Shepard dog of my own, a dog just like the star of the “Adventures of Rin –Tin – Tin which debuted in 1954. I knew nothing about Rin Tin Tin other than that he was the perfect dog, and that he was a character on television. When by chance I learned that Rin Tin Tin was a real dog not just a television character - a real dog with a real life that was extraordinary – I was drawn into the story and eventually to the ideas of the writing this book.  After digging through hundreds of pages of archives and files about photographs. I came to understand that this was not just a story about a dog, or even the story about a dog, or even the many different dogs that make up the Rin Tin Tin legacy; this is a story about a beloved icon who has played a role in decades of American popular culture.”

Lee Duncan is one of the real life people in the book who you will find most fascinating. 

Photo; Rin Tin Tin/Lee Duncan Collection of the Riverside Metropolitan Museum