Reader Richard E. Nunez writes with an intriguing question:

“I have been trying to find out the name of the dog on the seal of Pomona. Nobody seems to know at City Hall. So if you could help me with this, that would be great. Thanks.”

I wasn’t aware the city seal even featured a dog, but by golly it does. View an image here.

Pomona with a dog turns out to be mythologically correct. An online search turned up the tome “Manual of Mythology” by Alexander Stuart Murray, in which the entry for Pomona reads: “Was goddess of garden fruits, and was represented wearing a wreath composed of such, or holding in her hand a horn of plenty full of them, with a dog by her side.”

My understanding is that little is known about the Roman goddess Pomona, so perhaps her dog’s name, if he/she had a name, is lost to history. That said, can any students of mythology shed any light on this?

Alternately, I suppose we could simply make up an appropriate name for a dog that would belong to Pomona the goddess/Pomona the city. How about Taco?