The noble Bum sat for his portrait.

Holly Duin

DOG TAG COLLECTING has few canine heroes with the only documented hobby hero being Owney.

For those new to the hobby, Owney was a shaggy little terrier mix who, through the 1890s, rode the rails of America and the steamships of the world, collecting tags from far and wide during his travels.

His legend was of such note that his remains and his tags and medals are in the Smithsonian Museum to this day.

Owney and his tags have become the symbol of the Dog tag collecting hobby to the extent that an Owney Award is periodically granted to a deserving individual who has performed service to the hobby above and beyond.

The dog tag collecting focus has always been on dog license tags and our pursuit of them. But through recent research a new canine hero has emerged. One who shines a bright light on an area of our hobby that has often been viewed as the stepchild, the second-class citizen.

His name was Bum and in California his vagabond life was renowned.

Bum pictured missing his two feet after a fight which rolled him under a train. One foot being the 12 inches lost from his tail and the other missing foot being his front paw.

Bum, a Saint Bernard and Spaniel mix, became to the city of San Diego, what Owney was to the U.S. Postal Service. His life was chronicled by James Edward Friend ('Captain' as he liked to be called), an itinerant journalist, part-time telegrapher and would-be politician.

Captain Friend arrived in San Diego in November, 1886, just one month preceding Bum, and the two of them became inseparable.

According to tradition, Bum was born July 3, 1886 in San Francisco and during this time all untagged dogs were being brought to the pound. Among these unfortunates was the pregnant mother of Bum. Apparently a sympathetic pound employee allowed her to give birth to seven puppies. Bum was the only one to survive and was adopted by a fire company.

It would appear that Bum had inherited his mother's instincts for straying and Bum's wandering ways soon saw him hopping aboard the steamship Santa Rosa as a stowaway.

The ship landed in San Diego in December 1886 and, after several days of roaming about, Bum was taken under wing by a Chinese fisherman and grocer known as Ah Wo Sue.

Bum essentially had the run of the town, hanging out in the downtown area, eating at all the local restaurants, officiating at parades and attending town hall meetings and trials and even sitting in the Judge's chair!

In a nice touch that harked back to the San Francisco fire department who first adopted him, Bum fell in love with San Diego's one fire engine and would charge after the clanging bell and horses pulling the steam engine.

Bum was known to hang out at the Santa Fe Railroad yards and to have even boarded a train to Los Angeles. His San Diego friends sent a telegraph to Los Angeles and Bum was shown around the city in style before returning to San Diego several days later.

The dog tax receipt bearing Bum's image.

His propensity for wandering around the rail yards led to misfortune. He got into a fight with a bulldog and both rolled beneath a passing train. The bulldog was killed and Bum lost his right fore-paw and a foot off his tail. He was nursed back to health by his old friend, Ah Wo Sue.

The local dog catcher apparently unaware of Bum's notoriety, attempted to catch Bum. This did not go over well in the community and in 1891 James Friend, the journalist, applied for a lifetime dog tag for Bum. The request was quickly granted and placed in the city council minutes.

Bum was declared exempt from the dog tax. A woodblock with Bum's image was created and his picture was stamped on the city paper dog tax receipts, an example of which is in the Whaley House Museum in Old Town San Diego.

On May 22, 1894 Bum was accidentally kicked by a horse and his left hind leg was broken. The leg was set by a veterinarian and he was nursed back to health by James Friend.

Newspaper accounts had coverage of his recovery and photos of city officials attending to him were taken. The outpouring of concern and care from the community was unheard of in that day for an animal.

Bum under the surgeon's care after a kick by a horse broke his leg.

Eventually time and age caught up with Bum and his carousing ways. In 1898, crippled with rheumatism, Bum was given a final home at the County Hospital by order of the Board of Supervisors and died within a few months. His friend and Chronicler, 'Captain' James Friend had died a few months prior.

Bum was buried on the County Hospital grounds but no memorial plaque was ever made and his gravesite is no longer known. Interestingly Bum lived during the same period as Owney and died a year after him.

The significance of Bum to the dog license tag collecting hobby is clear. The oldest known dog license tag from San Diego is 1902. It was not known until now that any pre-1900 dog license tags had been issued in San Diego.

As you can see from the photo of the Dog Tax receipt that has Bum's image, it lists the tag number of 325 on the receipt, clearly showing that a tag was issued. Also of note is the receipt itself and it is currently the oldest known from California. Previously the oldest known was the 1894 Riverside.

What is even more significant however is that there is now a real-life representative for the paper license/tax certificate, just as Owney was for the dog tag.

While there are many prints of dogs on paper licenses, none, until now, were related to a real dog. Bum is this and more. At Bum's death in 1898 he was loved and remembered by an entire community.