Page 8 - Classically Carolina 2019

DOWNTOWN

The Little Brown Dog

Boykin Spaniel statues pay homage to breed’s local roots
T

There seems no better way to describe the and stories about the city.
installation of 11 small, bronze Boykin Spaniel
statues around Camden other than the way Mike “Mike and his crew treated the statues like they
Anderson did.
tourism and economic development director.
“It worked out wonderful,” the crew chief for were delivering babies,” says Suzi Sale, the city’s
the city’s street department says. “We work on “There’s four of us total on our crew,” Anderson says.
everything from putting in light bulbs and taking “I was amazed when they told us they wanted us to
down, cutting up and hauling off trees to the landfill. set out some bronze dogs. We had to handle them
Lord, we have a lot of hard and dirty jobs -- cleaning like little eggs. You know, I thought they were gonna
out ditches and storm drains. We do it all.” be big, big dogs and all, but they weren’t dogs, they
were little tiny pups. Dogs are like 10 or 12 inches
Including setting out little brown dogs. high, you know? And these little ole pups, they’re 4
or 5 inches tall. When I saw ’em, I said, ‘Where’s the
Anderson’s crew was asked to install the 5-inch mom and dad at? These’re just little ole pups!’”
statues throughout the city as part of a tourism
initiative -- guiding Camden visitors and natives Anderson and his crew took a fancy to the “little ole
around town in a scavenger-like hunt, using clues pups” which weigh about 5 pounds and have 8-inch
to find the statues and discover interesting places mounting stakes attached underneath them.

14 / CAMDEN~CLASSICALLY CAROLINA