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Dog Stories from the "Spectator": Being anecdotes of the intelligence, reasoning power, affection and sympathy of dogs, selected from the correspondence columns of "The Spectator" — John Shaqi

Dog Stories from the "Spectator": Being anecdotes of the intelligence, reasoning power, affection and sympathy of dogs, selected from the correspondence columns of "The Spectator"

General

Dog Stories from the "Spectator": Being anecdotes of the intelligence, reasoning power, affection and sympathy of dogs, selected from the correspondence columns of "The Spectator"

Dogs -- Folklore

A. H. A.


A COMMERCIAL TREATY BETWEEN A DOG AND A HEN.

          [_July 7, 1888._]

Your dog-loving readers may be interested in the following instance of
animal sagacity. Bob is a fine two-year-old mastiff, with head and face
of massive strength, heightened by great mildness of expression. One day
he was seen carrying a hen, very gently, in his mouth, to the kennel.
Placing her in one corner, he stood sentry while she laid an egg, which
he at once devoured. From that day the two have been fast friends, the
hen refusing to lay anywhere but in "Bob's" kennel, and getting her
reward in the dainty morsels from his platter. There must have been a
bit of canine reasoning here. "Bob" must have found eggs to his liking,
that they were laid by hens, and that he could best secure a supply by
having a hen to himself.

          THOMAS HAMER.


A DOG NURSE.

          [_Feb. 20, 1875._]

A patient recently consulted me who was blind and subject to fits. I
pointed out to her friends the danger to which she was exposed in case a
fit came on when she was in the vicinity of a fire, and they informed me
that she incurred little or no risk, because a favourite dog ran at once
and fetched assistance the moment a fit came on. This intelligent animal
would rush into the next house barking eagerly, would seize the dress of
the woman who lived there, and drag her to the assistance of his
mistress. If one did not go, he would seize another, and exhibited the
most lively symptoms of distress until his object was accomplished.

          CHARLES BELL TAYLOR, M.D., F.R.C.S.


INSTINCT, OR REASON?

          [_Sept. 1, 1888._]

The following incident in dog-life may perhaps find a place in the
_Spectator_. I quote from a letter received a few days ago from my
nephew, "T. G. T.," resident in South Africa:--"Johannesburg,
Traansvaal.--My dog Cherry has had three great pups, and I had to leave
her behind at the Grange. When I was going away, Cherry and the pups
were located in some stables. She came out and watched the tent-truck
and my things packed up. Presently I went away, and when I came back I
found Cherry had carried all the pups on to the top of my luggage, and
evidently had not the least intention of staying behind."

          T. W. T.


HOSPITAL DOGS.

          [_June 26, 1875._]

Dr. Walter F. Atlee writes to the editor of the _Philadelphia Medical
Times_:--

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Dog Stories from the "Spectator": Being anecdotes of the intelligence, reasoning power, affection and sympathy of dogs, selected from the correspondence columns of "The Spectator"

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