Animal Tales (Some a Little Fishy)

By Claudine Burnett

Learn about:
• An opossum who enjoyed X-rated movies.
• A canine thief with an appetite for eggs.
• A man who lost out on $38,000 in valuable pearls because he liked his oysters cooked instead of raw.
• Strange events and creatures off the California coast.
• A recipe for Pius IV’s favorite dish — frog livers.
• A statewide event where California school children were asked to kill as many ground squirrels as possible, verifying their kills by bringing the tails to school!

These are but a few of the stories largely centered around Long Beach, California, which have appeared over the past 130 years. Most have remained forgotten, until now. How much is true and how much “tongue in cheek” I will leave up to the reader to decide. In any case, they are they are fun, humorous and sure to entertain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665558808

Claudine Burnett

Claudine E. Burnett's books include From Barley Fields to Oil Town: A Tour of Huntington Beach: 1909-1922 (1996), Strange Sea Tales Along the Southern California Coast (2000), Haunted Long Beach (1996), and Balboa Films: A History and Filmography of the Silent Film Studio (2007). Paul Burnett has a degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he helped organize the university's first surf club. He is co-owner of the premier action sports and surf shop, Surfside Sports (SurfsideSports.com), which started in Newport Beach in 1975.

Book preview

© 2022 Claudine Burnett. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse   05/11/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-5879-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-5880-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022908317

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or

links contained in this book may have changed since publication and

may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those

of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher,

and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Dedicated to

Neighbor dog Keiko, who says hello to me at my gate

most days, his companion Muddy, who sadly isn’t with

us anymore and Winslow, who loves to eat socks.

Pets who have shared my life: Snooper, Zoie, Isis, Blackie,

L.C., Hebe, Sutter, Esmay, Amie, Morty and Pretty Bird.

All the dogs at Surfside Sports including Lacey,

Neishka, Rocky, Hunter, Pickles, Bat Man and more.

All of whom have made the store a fun place to visit.

Non-furry friends Charlotte and Greg, who

nurture and love animals of all kinds.

And animal lovers everywhere!

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

DOGS

Thievery

Loyalty

Rescuers

Mother Love

A Taxing Situation

Presidential Pet

Missing You

Biting and Barking

Memories

CATS

Dreaming of Cats

Regulating Cats

Home Sweet Home

Climbing Cats

Earthquake Cat

HORSES

Willmore City

Civil Servants

Suicidal Horse?

Rough Riders

Horse vs. Machine

Irish Sweepstakes

COWS AND CATTLE

Moo

Wandering Cows

Cattle Rustling

GOATS

Milk Business

Goat Rustling

Regulating Goats

BEARS

Pet Bears

Wrestling Bears

MONKEYS

Monkey Fits

Monkey Business

SKUNKS

Invading skunks

Pet Skunks

RACCOONS

Member of the Family

Troublesome

OPOSSUMS

Intruders

Movie Lovers

Hitchhikers

RABBITS

Pesty Rabbits

Raising Rabbits

Pet Rabbits

Airport Hazards

BIRDS

Pigeons

Pelicans

Chickens

Turkeys

Ostriches

Ducks

Talkers and Singers

RODENTS

Rats

Gophers

Ground Squirrels

Grey Squirrels

AQUATIC MAMMALS

Sea Lions

Whales

FISHY TALES

A Bit Hard to Swallow

A Strange Event

Sea Serpents

FROGS AND TOADS

An Invasion

Frog Farming

It’s Alive!

REPTILES

Turtles and Tortoises

Snakes

Alligators

HUNTING

Gun Clubs

Coyote Hunting

Jackrabbits

Pet Food

ZOOS

Nu-Pike

Zoo Cruise

EPILOGUE

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

Long Beach has long been a home to animals of all kinds — giant ground sloths, wooly mammoths, and present-day creatures such as dogs and cats. It does not take much to realize with all the oil found in Long Beach and Signal Hill that prehistoric animals must have roamed the area in abundance, dying, decaying, and eventually turning into sticky, gooey tar. However, not all of them turned into oil. Students attending Wilson High School may be surprised to learn that the track they run on, and much of the area around them, was once home to wooly mammoths, giant ground sloths, pterodactyl, prehistoric camels, bison and horses.

The school is built on one of the most fertile Pleistocene discovery sites in Southern California, according to scientists from the early 1900s — the Long Beach Brickyard at Seventh and Ximeno.

Too bad J. J. Chamberlain, brick company foreman and an unintentional paleontologist, isn’t around today to tell Wilson students of what he unearthed in his twenty years of working the oil fields and clay pits of Southern California. Besides finding saber-tooth tigers and a tiny, fossilized man in asphalt beds near Brea canyon, he claimed his most fascinating discovery was uncovering the prow and keel of an ancient ship, or gigantic canoe, near Los Angeles. The artifact, fifty or sixty feet in length, unfortunately, was impossible to preserve, crudely fastened together with wooden pins. It crumbled away to dust when exposed to air. Chamberlain was sure it was from a time predating the Vikings, possibly the broken remnant of Noah’s ark or a monument of man’s first attempt to navigate the waves.

I am sure Wilson students would have loved to have heard Chamberlain’s stories firsthand, but they may also be interested to know prehistoric remains continue to be found throughout the city — a mammoth tusk discovered near the airport in 1968 and camel and horse bones unearthed by geologists looking for earthquake faults at Pacific Coast Highway and Redondo in 2002. A February 26, 1922 Daily Telegram headline summed it up: Fossils are ripe in every section of this locality.

Stories of extinct animals are interesting, but what of those creatures living today?

There are countless tales waiting to be told, but many have already been shared, including numerous ones found in this book. The stories are centered around Long Beach, California. Most appeared in newspaper accounts and have remained relatively forgotten, until now. How much is true and how much is hyperbole I will leave up to you.

Escape with me as we delve into and learn about non-human creatures who inhabit our planet, Southern California, and Long Beach, California.

NOTE: (Updated prices have been included after costs reported in earlier years. They are based on the July 2, 2021, Consumer Price Index as found on the website Measuringworth.com)

DOGS

Thievery

In August 1910, Mrs. Horace Rapley laid a money order for $180 ($5261) on a table when a breeze from an open door carried it outside. Her neighbor’s puppy immediately grabbed the piece of paper and disappeared with it under the house. Mrs. Rapley and the neighbor children tried everything to try to get the puppy to come out, but he refused. He liked this game they were playing and decided to make it more interesting by investigating what was inside the envelope. When Mrs. Rapley heard the ripping sound she panicked. She could call the police but realized they would not fit in the crawl space. Instead, she called Mr. Bruce, a carpenter who lived a few doors away, hoping the puppy would lose interest in his new toy and the money order could be salvaged.

Bringing his hatchet and saw, the carpenter tore up the carpet in the sitting room, and sawed a large hole in the floor, in the hopes of finding the dog and the money order. After much searching, the money order was found intact in a large hole that had been scratched out by the little dog. Fortunately, Mr. Bruce could reach it without destroying more of the floor.

Several other valuables were also discovered in the dog’s secret cache including a pair of new shoes which had disappeared from the home two months earlier, a costly sterling silver backed clothes brush, a small silk coat, and several other objects. Mrs. Rapley was amazed at the find, and a little embarrassed, too. She believed the articles had been stolen by a burglar and reported the case to the police several weeks earlier.

Another canine thief, had an appetite for eggs. The incriminating evidence was found when Bert Paul’s spotted pointer was discovered with proof of the crime — egg on his face! The egg stealing thief was taken to the city jail, where he was consigned to the crazy cell. It seemed the policemen could think of no more appropriate place for a canine caught sucking eggs.

The dog’s problem was twofold — his love of eggs and lack of a home. Bert Paul refused to claim any responsibility for the dog’s actions — he had tossed the dog out of the house and told him to go away. Could an animal simply be abandoned and left on its own? That was the question city officials had to ponder.

Owners of dogs were held responsible for their acts, and in the event of a death of the animal, owners had to pay for their removal to animal heaven (i.e., the city dump). Since Mr. Paul had paid for a license for the pointer, didn’t that legally entail ownership AND responsibility? Paul said no, city officials said yes. A long disputed legal matter had now been settled — if you had a dog you didn’t want, you had to make arrangements for its elimination in a legal manner.

Loyalty

One of the most memorable sheep dogs on the Rancho Los Alamitos, according to J.A. Graves in his book Seventy Years in California, was Flora, a gift from Graves to John Bixby. Besides herding sheep, Flora was a wonderful retriever, used in hunting the many doves, quail and ducks in the rancho area. Flora, Graves believed, was as near to understanding the human language as any animal that ever existed. She was also smart. Graves told how when his daughter was three years old, she would take walnuts from the pantry and carry them out to the back porch in her apron. She would sit down, with Flora beside her, and the dog would crack the nuts with her teeth, dropping them in the child’s lap, then, together, they would devour the kernels!

Five years after giving Flora to John Bixby, Graves visited the Rancho and Flora remembered him, curling up on a rug near his bed at night, never leaving his side. When Graves left for home, he had gone about two miles when Flora appeared, running along the side of the buggy. Graves had to turn around, drive back to the ranch, and, amid great lamentations on Flora’s part, she was tied up so she could not follow.

Some dogs, like Flora, have owners, but their preferred human is someone else. Such was the case with Dewey, owned by restaurant owner Walter Chatten. Though Mr. Chatten always provided Dewey with choice leftovers, the restaurant business consumed much of Chatten’s day, and he didn’t have a lot of time to spend with the canine.

Understanding Chatten’s limited availability, Dewey found a new human friend who was a regular at Chatten’s restaurant. Mr. Landreth, vacationing in Long Beach for the summer, received permission to take Dewey with him during the day. The two would pal around at the beach, shop, and just hang out together. But Landreth was not a well man. He became suddenly ill in 1910, an ambulance was called, and a loyal Dewey followed the emergency vehicle to the hospital. There Dewey waited, days on end, whining to be let in to see his friend. Sometimes Dewey returned to the restaurant to see if perhaps Landreth had somehow escaped Dewey’s watchful eye and was there. Mr. Chatten had to tell him He is not here and the dog would sorrowfully plod back to the hospital.

Eventually Landreth was deemed well enough to be released. There at the foot of the hospital steps he found a joyful Dewey waiting for him.

Dewey was a loyal companion to his friend Mr. Landreth, but experience led Long Beach police officers W. L. Hawkins and Fred Phillips to conclude that many dogs, though seeming loyal, will only obey orders given by their master up to a point!

In June 1908, authorities received word that John Pugh, who lived in a haystack north of the city dump with about forty dogs, had cruelly tortured his horse to death and had dismembered it. The two lawmen went to the scene and found conditions had not been exaggerated. Pieces of the horse’s carcass hung from limbs of a tree.

A warning bark from a prowling dog brought Pugh from a hole in the haystack, carrying a Colt revolver. His clothes were in tatters, his hair hung below his shoulders, and he was covered with blood. At his heels came an army of dogs of all kinds and sizes.

When asked what the two men wanted, Phillips decided it was in his best interests to lie, replying he was there to buy hay for police horses. When Pugh looked toward the stack for a moment to determine how much to sell, Phillips seized the revolver and tossed it to Hawkins who disarmed Pugh and handcuffed him.

Pugh fought, clawed, bit, and screamed, dragging the officers about. Then he yelled for his dogs to attack. One dog bit Hawkins in the leg while Phillips pulled his revolver and killed the animal and three others. Seeing this, the rest of the pack slinked away, leaving their master to his fate.

Who was this bedraggled man police wondered? All they knew was that Pugh came to Long Beach in 1907 and lived near the city dump, surviving mainly on any scraps he could find. When those living nearby tried to help him, he set the dogs on them, and his neighbors decided to leave him alone until they saw him tormenting his starving horse. Pugh was taken to the city jail, placed in a padded cell. He was later committed to an asylum.

What happened to Pugh’s dogs? Hopefully, they found saner masters and did not end up at the dog pound, which had been in operation since 1890. Though too late for Pugh’s horse, the Long Beach ASPCA was organized in April 1917 to prevent cruelty to animals.

Many of us with a pet that went missing, hope that someday they will return. Such was the case with Prince who was so loyal to his family he found his way home after 2 ½ years.

The collie had been stolen by a passing motorist from the front yard of the Martinez family on New Year’s Day 1954. But in May 1956, the 6-year-old dog, limping and covered with sores, showed up at the family’s Lakewood home. He remembered his old tricks and everyone in the household except Charlene, who was just a baby when he left. The veterinarian said Prince appeared to have traveled hundreds of miles. His muzzle had turned gray, his teeth were worn down to the gums and his eyes were infected.

Prince was content to just rest, even ignoring neighborhood cats. He figured he had seen more of the world