My great grandmother had a German Shepherd by the name of Śmigły-Rydz. The dog was shipped from Germany to Manatí, Puerto Rico, already trained and ready to be a helper in her house. The dog was named after a prominent Polish politician and army leader, who was also a painter and poet. When my mother told me this story, I found it to be a curious tidbit of familial folklore. Nothing more. But as I ruminated on the story, a German Shepherd arriving to a Caribbean town, a dog t
