Maud is THE celebrity dog of Erie House in the Erie Canal Heritage Park in Port Byron.

Of course, dogs, cats, mules, and other animals have a role in canal activities of all sorts. This has always been true, as evidenced by this Dispatches post featuring a dog from Port Leyden, a cat from Fort Edward, and of course equines past and present.

Maud, meet Quincy, here at lock 30, overseeing

some winter maintenance work.

Many thanks to Lisa Best Wiles for passing along these great photos. More about Lisa and her work here.

Are there any other canal-loving dogs [cats, equines, iguanas….] out there? Please send some photos showing how much your animal loves the NYS Canals. Vintage photos are of course welcome.