Big Red Wiener Dog

Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin

Over the winter of early 2018, Jay Woody of Mequon built a 15-foot-long, 1,500 pound dachshund out of wire and wood, and gave it cement skin coated with bright red epoxy. It was only after he'd completed the dog that he realized it was too big for his yard. He didn't know what to do with it.

"He just emailed us out of the blue in March, 'I made this big red dog,'" said Angela Speed of the Wisconsin Humane Society. The Society accepted "Big Red Dog" as a donation, outfitted it with a collar and dog tag, loaded it onto a flatbed in June, and trucked it to Mount Pleasant, where it served as a fundraising attention-grabber. When the Humane Society's new building was complete, the Big Red Dog found a permanent home on its front lawn.