keatonianlogic:

Harry Houdini with his dogs Charlie (top right) and Bobby (top left). The bottom picture shows Houdini with his menagerie of other animals.

“Harry and Bess Houdini had no children. Maybe because of this, they lavished paternal attention onto their pets, particularly their dogs, Charlie and Bobby. […] Bess later told the story of how she discovered Bobby in a Harlem butcher shop and tried to feed him a bone. When the butcher would not let her, Bess bought the dog in order to feed it. Houdini taught his ‘frisky’ new dog how to escape from a pair of miniature handcuffs and a straitjacket and touted him as ‘Bobby The Handcuff King.’”

– Houdini’s Pets by John Cox