Badass Bamse

This being my first blog post I had a long list of honorable animals to choose from. From skydiving dogs to boxing bears, I thought I should choose the most fearsome warrior to be the very first "Animal of Honor". But that isn't what this blog is about. This blog is about showing humans that we're amazing. Not amazing like "oh look, fluffy caught a frisbie!" NO! Bad fluffy! Bad dog!

When I say "amazing" I mean "holy crap that dog just jumped out of a plane into enemy fire!.. AWESOME!". But this first post isn't about skydiving dogs or... Frisbie catching pooches. The first Animal of Honor this week goes to Bamse the Norwegian St. Bernard.

Bamse was stationed on the Throdd, A whale hunting vessel, with his family. That's right, before he was hunting Nazis he was hunting the largest mammal on the planet! After he was bored with the blood of giants he saw that the European mainland was in trouble. Norway knew they needed the toughest sailors to patrol their shores and keep their people safe, so they quickly drafted the Throdd knowing Bamse was on board thirsty for battle.

"The killing of giants bores me"

When the Throdd went into battle Bamse could be found on the nose of the vessel taunting his enemies as shells exploded around him. His crew feared for his safety, even though no shell could bring him down, and made a helmet for him to wear while spitting in deaths eye! This wouldn't last though as Norway just didn't have enough Bamse's for the entire country.

Throdd was one of 13 vessels to escape Norway and make landfall in UK on June 17th 1940. They don't say it in the history books, but those 13 surviving ships can thank their thin metal hides for Bamse and his anti-missile aura. Since bombs couldn't find Bamse, Bamse started looking for bombs. Just a few days later he was "converted" to a minesweeper in Rosyth Scotland. 

There he lived the rest of his days getting his shipmates out of fights (true), taking buses to local pubs on his own (true) and pushing knife wielding attackers to their watery grave (also true). He died of heart failure in 1944, which can probably be attributed to his boredom of killing giants and deflecting bombs by staring them down and shaming them into submission. He went from a mascot of a small whaling vessel to the symbol of Norway's spirit for freedom. He was buried with full military honors and gets a national celebration dedicated to him every ten years. Probably because if it was every year no one would care about any other holiday.

And that's why Bamse, the Norwegian St. Bernard get's the very first "Animal of Honor" award.