Statue of beloved mutt an homage to world’s strays
TALLINN, Estonia — Zorik was never the tailwagging or handlicking type. But that didn’t stop the freespirited vagabond dog from winning many hearts.
When the blackandwhite mutt, long a presence in a Tallinn neighborhood, was taken from the Estonian capital to the countryside this year to live out his days in the safe and restful surroundings of a family’s backyard, he was missed so much that the residents immortalized him with a statue.
“People donated for the monument. They wanted it and they still follow his fate even though he is already old and frail,” said Heiki Valner, an animal rescue volunteer who thought up the idea of the statue of Zorik and organized the fundraising.
Donations were collected and a local artist was commissioned to create the likeness of Zorik, with his upright ears and shaggy hair around his muzzle, along with a cat nestled against him.
The statue, now standing in front of a shopping center, is meant as a tribute both to Zorik and his animal companions, and to all strays. Zorik once had a dog companion who was killed in a car accident. He then took up with stray cats and was seen with them often, even while sleeping.
Residents say that Zorik first appeared as a pup about 12 years ago in a coal storage area in a nearby port, and had been a fixture ever since in Kalamaja, a workingclass district that is transforming into a magnet for hipsters.
In a society where the divide between ethnic Estonians and ethnic Russians is acutely felt, Zorik managed to bridge the divide, winning over Russianspeaking old women who fed him, as well as Estonian hipsters, including a group now opening a cafe named “Zorik.”
“Zorik was a dog who was able to disappear, he was a dog whom everyone in Kalamaja knew, he touched everyone — young and old, Estonians and Russians,” Valner said. “He was a point of social integration.”
He was so well liked that residents would sometimes feed him the best cuts of beef. But nobody could ever catch and domesticate him.
Viktoria Ger, who has given Zorik a new home, in an enclosure with a doghouse behind her own family home, describes him as a “peculiar dog.”
“He doesn’t want to be close to people, so he doesn’t like to be petted,” she said.
Initially he tried to escape and return to his old roaming territory, but now his frailty has finally won out over his free spirit.