sandiegopets

In San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter is a statue of Bum. During the late 1800s Bum arrived in San Diego as a stowaway and quickly became a fixture in the downtown district. The local restaurants fed him. He became a mascot for the firemen. Sometimes he led parades. Eventually he became San Diego’s official town dog.

Part of Bum’s charisma is that no one could own him and he made friends with all–all humans, anyway. He did lose a forepaw and part of his tail in a scuffle with another dog. When he died at 12 years old, the local children took a collection to give him a proper burial.

I didn’t know about Bum until yesterday when I spent the day in the Gaslamp District, but this small monument to him helps to bring to life the area as it once was–a seaport of brothels and gambling halls where a dog named Bum found a place for himself. It’s a fine thing when a dog has such a prominent part in a city’s history.

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