Boards
famous dogs - bummer & lazarus
Recognized for their unique bond and their prodigious rat-killing ability, they became a fixture of city newspapers, were exempted from local ordinances and immortalized in cartoons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bummer_and_Lazarus
Death of bummer: He died a lingering death in November 1865 after being kicked by a drunk, Henry Rippey. Bummer was still popular enough that, to avoid violence, the city immediately arrested Rippey, but he did not escape popular justice: on learning of his crime, his cellmate, David Popley, "popped him in the smeller"
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