In one of the episodes of "Tom Little Snowman", Tom and Jerry come to the Alps at the top of the snow. However, every time Tom becomes a snowman popsicle because he falls into a lake and is buried in the snow, he will have a brown fur with a drooping skin on his mouth. The honest

In one of the episodes of "Tom Little Snowman" in "Cat and Mouse" , Tom and Jerry came to the Alps on the top of the snow. Here, Tom still repeats the fate of losing, and has been frozen several times in the ice and snow of Switzerland . However, every time Tom becomes a snowman popsicle because he falls into a lake and is buried in the snow, there will be an brown fur with drooping skin on his mouth. The honest-looking big dog rushed over and fed the brandy from the wooden barrel on his neck into Tom's mouth. Then Tom will instantly regain his vitality and continue to fight wits and courage with Jerry.

When the author watched this episode when he was a child, he was very curious about the true form of this dog. Why is this dog living on the snow-capped mountains so smart and gentle that he actually searches and rescues the frozen Tom by himself, and feeds him brandy to replenish his spirits. When the author grew up, he realized that the dog in "Cat and Mouse" was actually the Saint Bernard , which is known as the "Swiss national treasure". So today we will take a closer look at this kind of snow-capped mountain wool that can be searched and rescued!

"Gentle Giant" St. Bernard

In fact, the St. Bernard s pictured in "Cat and Mouse" is very close to the appearance of the St. Bernard in reality, except for the fact that the fur color is too "even", it is very close to the reality of the St. Bernard. St. Bernard is a strong and muscular dog . Its height can reach 66-76 cm and its weight can reach 54-82 kg. It is definitely a large dog . Its fur is short and dense, and it appears reddish brown or white.

Although it is huge, the St. Bernard dog has always been famous for its gentle "good temper" and is called "Gentle Giant" . The St. Bernard is less aggressive and is very patient with every member of the family and even the cat. Therefore, the St. Bernards is not actually suitable for guarding the house, but their huge size and gentle personality have made them shoulder a more important mission - Snow Mountain Rescue.

How did the St. Bernard become a snow mountain rescue dog?

11th century, now in the Western Alps high in Valais, Switzerland, standing on the mountain at an altitude of 2496 meters, Great St. Bernard Pass . The pass is located in a mountain road between Switzerland and Italy, and is one of the only way to enter Italy from the north. But at that time, the pass was notorious for its extreme danger—not only because of its bad weather and avalanches, but also because of the bandits in the mountains. So around 1050, the chief minister of the Diocese of Aosta (a position in the church) Bernard de Menton founded the Great St. Bernard's Well House, which not only serves as a place of worship, but also provides refuge services for travelers.

St. Bernard and Great St. Bernard's Wells House

1681, more than five hundred years after Bernard passed away, Pope Innocent eleven letters from Bernard as "Saint" , which is the source of the name "Saint Bernard". By the way, Pope Pius XI made Bernard the patron saint of the Alps in 1923. Perhaps the dogs like St. Bernard are destined to be connected to the fate of Alps.

Before being introduced to the welfare home, the St. Bernard was a very common shepherd dog , and its ancestors were believed to have originated from the Rome era. Around 1660, the Great St. Bernard Wells House obtained the first St. Bernard from the locals. At first, the monks just hoped that the dog would guard the house and residents for them, but soon the St. Bernard began to show an extraordinary ability to find and save the traveler lost in the mountains.

A painting by the British painter John Ames in the 18th century, painting a monk and a St. Bernard

It is said that around 1750, a servant named Romaniel accidentally discovered the superhuman power of the St. Bernard . At that time, he took the St. Bernard to and from the nearby cities, and during this period he discovered that the dog could be found in the traveler buried deep in the snow. Since then, Great St. Bernard's Wells House has begun to train this dog as a search and rescue dog.

Usually, the St. Bernard will use its 's keen sense of smell to find the victims buried in the snow , and then use his paws to slash the snow until the victims are revealed. Then, usually one dog will lie on the victims to provide warmth , while the other dog will hike back to the aid house to remind the monks to come and rescue . In 1955, monks and St. Bernard rescued a lost traveler in the Alps camp

Snow Mountain Legend created by St. Bernard

In the 200 years since 1750 and then, St. Bernard has created one legend after another as the Snow Mountain Woman team. In the 18th century, the poet Oliver Goldsmith of Irish wrote about : "They (the monks of the aid house) have such a noble dog that can save travelers with extraordinary wisdom. Even if the dead are lying 10 or even 20 feet under the snow, the dog can still track their scent."

1800, Napoleon led the army between central Europe and Italy. When crossing the Great St. Bernard Pass, which is cold to only a few months of snow every year, the entire army actually experienced a miracle of no death. Although there are many reasons for creating this miracle, one of them - and one that the soldiers talked about by word of mouth and particularly relish - is Saint Bernard , especially the dog "Barry" plays an important role in the search and rescue of victims .

According to legend, Barry has rescued more than 40 people in his ten-year working life. The most famous rescuer is a little boy. At that time, the little boy fell asleep in the ice cave. When Barry found out, he began to lick him to warm him up. Then he arched the little boy on his back and ran back to the aid house. The child survived.

Although the authenticity of this story needs to be investigated, the fact that Barry rescued more than 40 people in his life is indeed recorded, so that the locals gave it such a nickname "Menschenretter", meaning "People's Rescuer" . After retirement, Barry was brought to Bern for his merits and enjoyed his old age.

Barry's body is forever preserved in the Natural History Museum in Bern to commemorate his outstanding contribution

The wooden barrel containing brandy is actually fictional? ?

Said St. Bernard, the first thing many people, including the author, think of is the wooden barrel of brandy that is hung around their necks. Some people believe that these small barrels played an important role in the rescue process because alcohol can restore blood flow. Although some people argue whether it is rum , gin, brandy or local secret brew (but when the author was a child, he always thought it contained hot tea...), few people would doubt the authenticity of the signature feature of the St. Bernard.

However, there is evidence that the combination of "St. Bernard + Brandy barrel" is actually a fictional . The barrel does exist, but it does not contain wine. In the 1820s, a 17-year-old British painter, Lancier , drew a pair of St. Bernards in a painting called "The Alpine Mastiff's Resurrection of Painful Traveler" , and put a small wooden barrel around one of them. Someone asked what was in this wooden barrel, and Rancier said it was full of brandy .

Lancier's painting

Of course, this answer is casually said by Lancier. In fact, the wooden barrel is just filled with ordinary water. But this inspiration made the brandy barrel a symbol of the St. Bernards. To this day, St. Bernard owners still prefer to dress up their dogs in wooden barrels. By the way, Lancier later became the favorite painter of Queen Victoria in , which is another story of the mutual achievements of Saint Bernard and humans.

Now, the St. Bernard has changed from working dogs to pets for thousands of households (but because they are too large, many cities in my country are prohibited from raising St. Bernard's Wells House has long used helicopters to start searching and rescuing victims.However, the history of the Snow Mountain Search and Rescue Dogs of St. Bernards makes them the representative of loyalty, sacrifice and dedication, and is therefore praised by the Swiss as the "national treasure" of and the national representative of . If you have the chance to see these woofers next time, you can see if they have a wine barrel on their necks!

I am aerospace orange, a master's degree in studying European international relations. Although I am not doing my job today~ Welcome to like, follow and comment!

Saint Bernard is also the mascot of the Swiss national chocolate Toblerone (triangle chocolate). The author also has a doll!