On the trail of the "pooch" (1913, 1914, 1917)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

    Merriam-Webster's 11th has "pooch n [origin unknown] (1924): DOG."
    I'm hot on the trail of this dog, and we'll see what PUCK has.  These
Ancestry citations are a little earlier than the 1919 cite I had posted here
before.



    24 May 1913, INDIANA MESSENGER (Indiana, Pennsylvania), pg. ?, col. 2:
   In the days of the continuous at the Olympic an occasional professional
visitor was a clown with an educated pig.  He used to take the pig out with him
when he had finished his act and had him harnessed up like a trick pooch with
a collar, shoulder straps and a leading string.

   26 October 1914, FORT WAYNE NEWS (Fort Wayne, Indiana) pg. ?:
(Mutt and Jeff cartoon--ed.)
_Jeff Ought to Have the Only Dog in the Show Like This--By Bud Fisher_
MAN (Panel One, to Jeff, who is walking a dog):  HELLO, JEFF, WHERE DID YOU
GET THE POOCH?

   22 May 1917, FORT WAYNE NEWS (Fort Wayne, Indiana), pg. 19, col. 3:
LOST--White poodle female dog; child's playmate; answers to name of "Pooch."
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