06/15/2026
Here’s a great Doberman story to start off your week. The tale of Maverick — a wild, wily Doberman who became a national sensation in 1958 — is almost too good to believe.
For four years, Maverick lived as a stray in the hills around North Hollywood, California, constantly outsmarting dogcatchers. They chased him by car and on foot. They baited traps with tranquilizers hidden in meat. Maverick ate the meat and spit out the drugs. When they tried using a female boxer as bait inside a cage, Maverick ripped the back off the cage and took the lady dog into the hills with him.
Eventually, animal control officers managed to capture him using a tranquilizer gun. But instead of disappearing quietly into a city pound, Maverick’s story exploded in newspapers across the country. More than 1,000 people wrote asking to adopt the rebellious Doberman hero. It was decided to auction him off to the highest bidder.
The winning bidder was Doris Crown of Van Nuys, who paid $130 for Maverick (the equivalent of about $1,500 today). She picked up her new companion in a bright red convertible and brought him home to her 2½-acre estate, complete with Maverick's own bedroom (with a king-size bed) and two Afghan hound companions.
“It’s not training he needs, but pampering, and he’s getting it,” Doris told reporters later. She joked that Maverick had become attached to her husband Harry “like a leech,” and that Harry’s obsession with the dog was “almost grounds for divorce.”
The Crowns also adjusted their lives for their new pet, turning down personal engagements just to ensure Maverick got adequate walk time in the evenings. “We’ve had to give up our social life. You can’t imagine how much money we’ve saved that way. And Harry has had to give up ci**rs because Maverick doesn’t like them," she said.
After four years of living by his own rules, Maverick finally found a home worthy of a legend.
Sources include:
“Doughty Doberman finds happy home,” Associated Press/Bakersfield Californian, Oct. 10, 1958
“Man is a Dog’s best friend,” Associated Press/Appleton Post-Crescent, November 7, 1958
