A spaniel, seemingly at play, snapped, in the morning, at the feet of
several persons. In the evening he bit his master, his master's friend,
and another dog. The old habits of obedience and affection then
returned. His master, most strangely, did not suspect the truth, and
brought the animal to me to be examined. The animal was, as I had often
seen him, perfectly docile and eager to be caressed. At my suggestion,
or rather entreaty, he was left with me. On the following morning the
disease was plain enough, and on the following day he died. A
post-mortem examination took place, and proved that he was unequivocally
rabid.
A lady would nurse her dog, after I had declared it to be rabid, and
when he was dangerous to every one but herself, and even to her from the
saliva which he plentifully scattered about. At length he darted at
every one that entered the room, until a footman keeping the animal at
bay with the poker, the husband of the lady dragged her from the room.
The noise that the dog made was then terrific, and he almost gnawed his
way through the door. At midnight his violence nearly ceased, and the
door was partially opened. He was staggering and falling about, with
every limb violently agitated. At the entreaty of the lady, a servant
ventured in to make a kind of bed for him. The dog suddenly darted at
him, and dropped and died.
A terrier, ten years old, had been ill, and refused all food for three
days. On the fourth day he bit a cat of which he had been unusually
fond, and he likewise bit three dogs. I was requested to see him. I
found him loose in the kitchen, and at first refused to go in, but,
after observing him for a minute or two, I thought that I might venture.
He had a peculiarly wild and eager look, and turned sharply round at the
least noise. He often watched the flight of some imaginary object, and
pursued with the utmost fury every fly that he saw. He searchingly
sniffed about the room, and examined my legs with an eagerness that made
me absolutely tremble. His quarrel with the cat had been made up, and
when he was not otherwise employed he was eagerly licking her and her
kittens. In the excess or derangement of his fondness, he fairly rolled
them from one end of the kitchen to another. With difficulty I induced
his master to permit me to destroy him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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