Mysterious Unconventional Statue Caught The Eye Of A Woman Passerby Who Digs Out The Amazing Story Behind It
While on a walk, Alice Fay came across something she had never seen before. In the past, she had taken this route quite often for her walks.
The tree-lined street on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston had been visited by her before. But she had never noticed a bronze dog statue with its head poking out from the stone fence.
“I was chatting with my sister, who lives in a different state, as I walked by it,” Fay shared. “I looked over and gasped, stopping my conversation. I turned around, went back, and said, ‘There’s this statue here, and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!’”
It was a life-sized statue of a Labrador who looks like he is searching for his lost tennis ball.
From the look of it, the statue appears to be some sort of memorial for someone's pet. Fay took pictures of it, trying not to cry.
Since she didn't know the actual story behind the statue, she was intrigued to find it out. So, she posted the pictures she had taken earlier on her Facebook.
“I wanted to go knock on the door, but I thought it would be weird,” Fay said. Upon further inquiry, it was revealed that Anne Lovett and Steve Woodsum are the owners of that statue, and they modeled it after Piper, their black Labrador.
"We wanted to add just something to our front yard," Lovett said.
"Something that would be a little bit unique and visually interesting for people coming by. Something, sort of, like a little surprise." The couple commissioned the services of a sculptor named Jim Sardonis in 2006.
They asked him to create a life-sized statue of their dog Piper to be placed in their front garden. The sculptor immediately resonated with the idea when he was greeted by Piper peeking through the fence.
He decided that this best described Piper's personality and also added an element of surprise. “I went down to take photos of the dog, and we went out into this little front yard. The first thing the dog did was put her head through the railing,” Sardonis shared.
However, it was Lovett's idea to add a tennis ball.
"Piper loves chasing tennis balls," Lovett said. "I felt as though it was just a little bit of serendipity that people might not notice the first time or the second time, but maybe the third time they would see it."
Since the time of its installation in the garden, Piper's statue has been greeting and filling the hearts of passersby and neighbors with joy—if they are able to spot him.
“It became an instant icon, apparently, especially with children walking by,” Sardonis said. “They would want to pat her head, and you can see some of that in the wearing away of the dark patina to the shiny bronze underneath.”
Fay breathed a sigh of relief when she learned that the statue is a tribute and not a memorial for Piper.
“It made me feel good that she was still alive when they had it made,” Fay said. “It made me wonder why no one else had ever done something like this. It was beautiful.”
Piper passed away later, but she still lives in that garden as her bronze statue.
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