Regardless of whether all the dogs go to heaven, a very good boy is being immortalized for posterity here on Earth with a statue in the Estonian capital, Tallinn.
The black and white stray dog, which the locals called Zorik, lived in the Kalamaja neighborhood for 12 years, from when he was a puppy, before being welcomed by good Samaritans to spend his last days in the shelter and comfort.
But the community has missed his presence so dearly that they launched a fundraiser to have a statue of Zorik, created by local artists, erected in a nearby public area for everyone to honor and remember. The sculpture depicts the reed of good character sitting upright with a cat nestled under its chest. The faithful Zorik was said to have often trapped Tallinn with other vagabonds, including cats.
“People gave for the monument,” said Heiki Valner, an animal rescuer and campaign leader for the Zorik statue. “They follow his destiny even though he is already old and fragile,” he told AP.
The neighborhood is home to Estonian and Russian speakers, who found a common ground in their appreciation for the dog, according to Valner, who described Zorik as a “point of integration” for the expanding community. A newly opened cafe even took the dog’s name as a tribute.
Many residents in the past had tried to make themselves available to the “free spirit,” as Valner called it, but refused to stay. When old age settled, concerns for his health and safety caused animal rescuers to find refuge for Zorik again.
“In the end, he was so senile that he would just fall asleep on the railroad or tram tracks or just on the road, so cars had to drive around him,” Valner said.
Viktoria Ger, Zorik’s last caregiver, called him a “peculiar dog” who “doesn’t trust people,” who she said was the result of a hard life and abuse by some heartless humans. . Not everyone treated him with dignity, according to Valner, who called his story “a contest of good and evil.”
In Zorik’s case, “goodness won,” he said.