From the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 8/31/1935, p. 2, c. 1

Richmond Parade
By Clarence Boykin
A Canine Tradition
Enforcing the Law
The Fire Chaser
About That Chicken

…Another remarkably sagacious animal was the pet and pride of the Richmond Fire Department – “Snookums,” a name taken about 20 years or so ago from a cartoon then appearing in The Times-Dispatch.

CAPTAIN L. R. ROGERS of Camp, No. 12, Addison and Cary Streets, can tell you as much about “Snookums” as anybody, and you can get a lot of details, too, from CAPTAIN JOHN F. FINNEGAN of Company, No. 7, on Cary between Ninth and Tenth, where “Snookums” made his headquarters.

“Snookums,” a white and brown English bull terrier, flourished in the years just before the department was motorized. At the sound of the fire gong he would leap on the truck and, as the driver took his seat, plunge to the back of the nearest horse and thence to the ground, dashing ahead of the flying apparatus 100 yards in front, barking loudly and invariably clearing a path through congested areas, especially on lower Cary. By some singular power of divination, “Snookums” unerringly knew the location of the fire.

Responding to an alarm at the Tredegar Iron Works in 1919, “Snookums” was killed on South Seventh Street – run over by his own motor truck.

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