All those who travel to Juneau, Alaska, by water are welcomed at the dock by a dog named Patsy Ann. She doesn't bark. She doesn't wag her tail. She doesn't even respond when you call her. That's because Patsy Ann is a bronze statue that sits imposingly and silently in the middle of Patsy Ann Square, which borders Juneau's Gastineau Channel.
The real Patsy Ann was a Staffordshire bull terrier who arrived in Juneau as a newborn pup in late 1929 with her human family. Her family didn't keep her once they realized she was deaf and could not bark.
The dog was taken in by a second family, but for unknown reasons was later abandoned by them as well. Patsy then became an orphan who freely roamed the streets of Juneau. Patsy Ann limited her daily wanderings to the downtown area, where local merchants and residents grinned at the sight of her happily loping from business to business. Though Patsy Ann was an orphan, the Longshoremen's Hall became her nightly home. For her, it was the most logical place for warmth and sleep because she spent so much of her time on the docks.
