Bonzo's War Read Free Page B

and a further 9,236 by the ODFL North London Dogs Home in the period 1939–44. ‘There is no statutory requirement on the police as regards cats,’ it was noted, ‘no figures are therefore available.’

A Note on the Sources
    Pets, on the whole, do not leave diaries, memoirs or letters. Fortunately for the author of this book, the British obsession with the domestic pet meant that there was an outpouring of words written by humans on the subject throughout the years of the Second World War.
    The principle animal welfare charities of the period mentioned above have largely survived and I am grateful to their archivists. They published their own magazines
(The Cat, PDSA News, The Animal World, The Dogs Bulletin, The Animals’ Defender
etc.) and annual reports, while the turbulent affairs of the semi-official umbrella organization, the National Air Raid Precaution Animals Committee (NARPAC), are amply recorded at the UK National Archives.
    In spite of paper shortages, bombing, and evacuation, those splendid enthusiast publications such as
Our Dogs, Cat World, The Dog World, Fur and Feather, Bee Craft, Cage Birds, The Goat, Kennel Gazette
etc. kept going throughout the conflict with their own insightful reflections on total war. The
Tail-Wagger Magazine
, fabulously, featured articles contributed by pets.
    Horse & Hound, The Field, Farmers Weekly, Eggs, The Smallholder, The Veterinary Record
etc. take the story of wartime animals into a pastoral context. And wartimenewspapers, local and national, had a passion for hero animal stories that continues undiminished. The archives of the Zoological Society of London, the Imperial War Museum Department of Documents and Mass-Observation are all pet-friendly.
    The files of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Food tell the alarming story of the dwindling food bowl – the issue, apart from the actions of their owners, which truly determined the fate of wartime animals. War Office and Air Ministry files contain the official story of Britain’s war dogs, while Home Office files recount the amazing tale of the 1944–45 London rescue dogs.

A Note on the Naming of Pets
    All pet names, – ‘Dusty’, ‘Blackie’, ‘Little One’, ‘Teeny Weenie’, ‘Hitler’ etc. – are as originally reported.
    Bonzo was found by Mass-Observation to be one of the most popular dog names of 1941. It was still all the rage after the cartoon dog first drawn by Englishman George Studdy in 1922, which inspired a worldwide craze and the naming of a vast number of real-life Bonzos (including two pre-war winners of the
Daily Mirror
Brave Dog award). From 1929, there was a feline equivalent, ‘Ooloo’.
    Oo-Oo
(sic)
was a Maida Vale cat who came into Our Dumb Friends’ League hands in unusual circumstances on the eve of war. I would like to have met Oo-Oo – in fact I am sure I have done. These two will be our guide to certain wartime events.
    Abbreviations
    ADL Animal Defence League
    ARP Air Raid Precautions
    ATS Auxiliary Territorial Service
    AWDTS Army War Dog Training School
    BEF British Expeditionary Force
    BUF British Union of Fascists
    CD Civil Defence
    CMP Corps of Military Police
    CPL Cats Protection League
    LAPAVS London and Provincial Anti-Vivisection Society
    MAFF Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries
    MAP Ministry of Aircraft Production
    MFH Master of Fox Hounds
    MFHA Master of Fox Hounds Association
    M-O Mass-Observation
    NARPAC National ARP Animals Committee
    NCDL National Canine Defence League
    NVMA National Veterinary Medical Association
    ODFL Our Dumb Friends’ League
    PDSA People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals
    RAVC Royal Army Veterinary Corps
    RCVS Royal College of Veterinary Science
    RE Royal Engineers
    RSPCA Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
    USAAF United States Army Air Force
    VP Vulnerable Point
    ZSL Zoological Society of London

Part One
PAWS IN OUR