There are two statues of dogs near the Boundary Stone on Bowen Rd, looking onto a waterfall. Has anyone come across these before or have an information on their background?
The only thing I associate with dogs and Bowen Road is the infamous dog poisoner who remains at large and had/has a habit of leaving poisoned meat out for unsuspecting dogs to eat. Are the statues new enough to be some sort of memorial to some previous victims?
Hi T, it could be the statues are from a time before the widespread cropping of tails became common. Many dogs naturally have long tails but they are cut at birth for whatever reason (aesthetics?). I was quite shocked to discover quite late in life that Schnauzers, for example (because my grandparents had several), are supposed to have quite long tails, but they are cropped at birth.
I will defer to the experts, but I don't think we should discount them as dogs just yet. I guess if they are old then my first thoughts above can be discounted.
Phil
These aren’t dogs, they’re tigers - or at least they were when they were originally placed there. They’ve been there for at least 20 to 25 years, and probably longer. The story I heard was that they were from the old Tiger Balm Garden, but I’ve no idea if that’s true, or who put them on Bowen Road. When first encountered in their original striped glory, glimpsed in the bushes in fading light, they could cause a nervous double-take!
Re: animal statues
Hi there,
The longer tail on the right making it unlikely to be dogs. Are those yellowy stains paints or colour pigments?
T
ps. could be feline.......
Dogs
The only thing I associate with dogs and Bowen Road is the infamous dog poisoner who remains at large and had/has a habit of leaving poisoned meat out for unsuspecting dogs to eat. Are the statues new enough to be some sort of memorial to some previous victims?
Re: animal statues
Hi Phil,
Those looked quite old to me. May go up there and have a look myself later this week.
A note, if you zoom in, the long tail on the right curl towards it's head along the hind leg. Doesn't look like a dog's tail to me.
T
tails
Hi T, it could be the statues are from a time before the widespread cropping of tails became common. Many dogs naturally have long tails but they are cut at birth for whatever reason (aesthetics?). I was quite shocked to discover quite late in life that Schnauzers, for example (because my grandparents had several), are supposed to have quite long tails, but they are cropped at birth.
I will defer to the experts, but I don't think we should discount them as dogs just yet. I guess if they are old then my first thoughts above can be discounted.
Phil
Here are some more photos of…
Here are some more photos of the statues. It looked like there was once yellow paint on them and they look more feline.
The tail is broken on one of the statues and there's just a wire hanging out.
No other plaques or markings from what I could see.
Tigers on Bowen Road
These aren’t dogs, they’re tigers - or at least they were when they were originally placed there. They’ve been there for at least 20 to 25 years, and probably longer. The story I heard was that they were from the old Tiger Balm Garden, but I’ve no idea if that’s true, or who put them on Bowen Road. When first encountered in their original striped glory, glimpsed in the bushes in fading light, they could cause a nervous double-take!
Thanks for confirming they…
Thanks for confirming they're tigers, interesting back story if there's any truth to it.