Spot, the family's 'pet dragon', is compared in the newspaper article to the size of the Loch Ness Monster. The scientific community regards Nessie (its affectionate name) as a phenomenon without biological basis, explaining sightings as hoaxes, wishful thinking, or the misidentification of mundane objects. Alternatively, different sources claim that Spot was recycled from the Tyrannosaurus model from One Million B.C. (1940) or that it was designed by Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis and assembled by some builders, or a dinosaur model from The Land Unknown (1957).
There is a plaque on the wall in the Mayor's office that states that Mockingbird Heights was founded in 1881.