Bum

A mixture of St Bernard and Spaniel the dog was a stowaway in the steamship Santa Rosa coming ashore in San Diego city in the USA in1886, the dog soon became a fixture of the city, cadging food from all the restaurants along Main Street. The Americans have a saying for anyone who cadges food and favours from others…they call them ‘bummers’, so soon the likable dog was named Bum.

Bum’s adventures living on the streets of San Diego were varied and many. He soon became well known at a brawler. He won countless victories over the other stray dogs in town and he had even done many cats to death! In his time in San Diego Bum had lost part of his tail and his right paw.

There are conflicting stories of how it happened. One says it came about at Woodhaven Rail Junction of the Long Island Railroad. Bum was sitting by the railtracks, his tail, which was rather long eventually touched the live rail. There was a flash, a bit of smoke, a startled howl and according to one railway man, Bum was transformed into a dancing dervish trying to catch his own tail! When he calmed down Bum tried to retrieve part of his burnt tail off the line by his right paw, touching the live rail for the second time. This time he lost part of his leg!

The second story says that one day a bulldog tried to take over Bum’s territory and Bum objected, and there was a fight on the train tracks as a train approached. The train hit the fighting dogs and Bum lost part of his right paw and some of his tail. The bulldog was killed.

The loss of his paw did not stop the courageous dog, because Bum became so well known in the city of San Diego that he was declared the city’s official town dog.

When dog licences were introduced in San Diego Bum was declared exempt, by the City Council and his likeness was printed on dog tax receipts.

When Bum eventually died in November 1898, local children collected pennies to give Bum a proper funeral.