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San Marino, CA 91108
Manuscripts
A story of a battle between police dogs and a rattlesnake
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- Description
- This manuscript written by Sidney Bernard Reeve describes a confrontation between German shepherd police dogs and a rattlesnake that took place on an afternoon in June 1928. It occurred while Reeve was on a surveying job in the Santa Monica Mountains. Along with his assistants, Reeve was accompanied by a government ranger and his two police dogs - one male and one female. The female dog was the mother of the male dog. Before the ranger managed to shoot the rattlesnake dead with his revolver, the mother dog had already been struck twice by its poisonous fangs. The ranger thought it best to put the poor suffering dog out of her misery, but Reeve insisted on using his poison kit to try to save the dog's life. Reeve used his syringe to inject the mother dog with two separate doses of permanganate of potash. Clearly in agony, the dog's head had swollen to double in size. Reeve also gave her some medicine and plenty of water. The ranger took the poisoned dog to a veterinary surgeon that evening, and was told that all he could do was take good care of her and wait and see what happens. Then, a little more than a month after the incident, while Reeve was out on another surveying job, he again encountered the ranger with his two dogs. Reeve was overcome with tears of joy when he saw that the mother dog had fully recovered from her nearly fatal poisoning.
