Dog Names that Start with Sm

Smoky, also known as Yorkie Doodle Dandy, was a Yorkshire Terrier who is known as one of the first therapy dogs ever. She was found in a foxhole in the jungle of New Guinea by a soldier, Ed Downey, who did not particularly like dogs but felt sorry for the little pup. He then gave Smoky to a friend, Sergeant Dare, who sold her to Bill Wynne for two Australian pounds ($6.44) so he could get in a poker game. Wynn kept Smoky and took her with him into combat with the 26th Photo Recon Squadron, the 6th Photo Recon Group, the 91st Photo Recon Wing, and the 5th Air Force over the next 18 months. 

In Smoky’s short military career, she was awarded wings for 12 combat missions, the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with two battle stars, two Presidential Unit Citations, and the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Ribbon with eight battle stars. She was also awarded the "Champion Mascot of the Southwest Pacific Area" by Yank Magazine in 1944. Smoky’s first big solo assignment was in January of 1945 in the Philippine Islands when she was tasked to pull a string with wires for communication through a 70-foot pipe under the runway of an airstrip. This saved 250 of her fellow soldiers from having to spend three days digging a culvert, which would have exposed them and their 40 warplanes to bombing by the Japanese. 

This four-pound highly intelligent and compassionate pooch learned all kinds of tricks and kept Bill and the troops in good spirits from Korea to Australia. In fact, Smoky is on record as being the first therapy dog in history by visiting the patients in the hospitals wherever she was stationed. She first visited the 233rd Station Hospital in New Guinea in July of 1944 accompanying the nurses and meeting the wounded. Charles Mayo, of the Mayo Clinic, was the commanding officer who let Smoky go on rounds with the nurses and even let her sleep in her master’s hospital bed for five nights when he was hurt. 

In fact, Smoky was such a good therapy dog; the Red Cross requested that Bill bring her to visit other hospitals when he was on leave. One of the hospitals, the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital, was one that Smoky continued to visit for 12 years both during and after the war. During her time in the service, Smoky survived being bitten by a poisonous jungle centipede, several typhoons, the Luzon Invasion, and many kamikaze attacks. 

Smoky almost had to be left behind when the troops headed home to the United States due to strict regulations on the USS General William H. Gordon (AP-117) troop transport ship. However, Bill smuggled her aboard by hiding her in an oxygen mask case and they went to live in the United States where they became famous for their service. Smoky was awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal for animal bravery in 2001, and there are six memorials across America for the little pooch, so she will never be forgotten.