Archive for the ‘Dog Tails’ Category

In December 1910, the New York Times ran a large article who could speak and form sentences up to four words long. The talking dog lived in a small village in Germany with a game warden named Herman Ebers.

The dog, who had a very Germanic name–Don (ha ha)–spoke in German. Which is probably why he refused to speak with the press when he arrived in New York in 1913 to start his American vaudeville tour.

A fun doggie tale, with some fascinating history about Brighton Beach and the Hotel Shelburne.

In 1918, a prominent dog dealer and exhibitor established a hotel for dogs at 132 West 65th Street. Today, this is the address of the David Geffen Hall (formerly Philharmonic Hall and Avery Fisher Hall) at Lincoln Center.

During World War II, the United States Army Garrison at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn was an important staging area for the New York Port of Embarkation. The Fort Hamilton Fire Department, installed in December 1941, was one of many military installations within New York City that had a paid civilian fire department and fire apparatus during and after the war. The department had 27 enlisted men and a toothless mascot named Butch.

Until recently, I never realized that service dogs such as Seeing Eye dogs were once banned from the NYC subways.

Here is the true story of Robert J. Losch and his dog, Sally, who fought to overturn the ban on service dogs in the subways. I discovered their story after finding a wonderful vintage photo of Thomas F. Gilmartin, Jr. and his Seeing Eye dog, Rascal…

Many old stories have been told of the Brooklyn-born canine and feline mascots that went to sea (like Peggy and Tom of the USS Maine, as an example), but this tale, which takes place at Pier 12 of the New York Dock Company, is about a landlubber dog and cat who patrolled the Brooklyn waterfront.