Visitors to the old East New York Police Station never failed to notice the large Newfoundland dog sitting about as if he owned the place. The old dog, described as long and shaggy and turning gray around the face, was a favorite among all the policemen as well as “citizens in general and reporters in particular.”
With “sterling qualities, his intelligence and his friendly feeling toward the law abiding portion of the human race,” Nick had truly earned his sergeant’s stripes.
For four months in 1936, Bess was the most famous mother of all the Brooklyn fire dogs in the Fire Department of New York. But then her own daughter took over the Top Mom title of the FDNY.
One of my favorite fire-cat stories is about Peter and Chops, the beloved firefighter felines of Engine Company No. 14 in New York City’s Flatiron District. When I wrote the story about Peter and Chops for my book, The Cat Men of Gotham, I didn’t realize that they had a canine predecessor.
I recently discovered the wonderful story of Chappie, a pedigree pit bull coach dog gifted by William Waldorf Astor who also called the Engine 14 firehouse his home.
Somewhere under an apartment building on West 121st Street, on a section of the street just east of Amsterdam Avenue called George Carlin Way, lies the body of a large Newfoundland who was buried on an early spring day in 1896. His grave, once “marked by a floral display seldom equaled by a rich man’s funeral,” is now under tons of concrete and steel. But the story of Nero, the beloved Newfoundland of Fire Patrol No. 5, will live on through this animal tale of Old New York.
