Archive for the ‘FDNY Horses/Mascots’ Category

When FDNY veteran Martin Cook received his promotion to captain of Engine 4 in 1886, the company received two horses, Dan and Dick. Even as the two horses aged, they did the city and the FDNY proud. Captain Cook often received offers to trade in his team for younger animals, but he always turned them down. According to the FDNY veteran, there was not a more reliable, more careful, or faster team of fire horses in America.

In 1910 and 1931, Happy and Pansy were two cat-saving fire dogs of the FDNY who ran into burning buildings to save their natural enemy.

Five years after their new house opened, the patrolmen were still without a mascot. They wanted one, but they did not want a canine mascot. As a salvage corps, the men of Fire Patrol 3 had an immense territory to cover—from river to river and from 14th Street to 57th Street—which made it impractical for them to have a dog trained to follow the apparatus to fires.

So, when the opportunity to acquire a proper mascot presented itself at a fire at Seventh Avenue and Twenty-Eighth Street in October 1900, the men acted immediately.

In 1903, one of the most popular dog-and-cat dynamic duos of the FDNY were Dan and Nickie* of Engine Company No. 65. Forty years later, Chappy and Henry the pole-sliding cat were the canine and feline stars of the fire company. Here are their stories and photos.

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.