Collie -- Juvenile fiction; Dogs -- Juvenile fiction; Short stories
When he was little more than a puppy, he fell dangerously ill with some
kind of heart trouble. Dr. Hopper said he must have medicine every half
hour, day and night, until he should be better. I sat up with him for
two nights.
I got little enough work done, between times, on those two nights. The
suffering dog, lay on a rug beside my study desk. But he was uneasy and
wanted to be talked to. He was in too much pain to go to sleep. In a
corner of my study was a tin biscuit box, which I kept filled with
animal crackers, as occasional titbits for the collies. Every now and
then, during our two-night vigil, I took an animal cracker from the box
and fed it to Treve.
By the second night he was having a beautiful time. I was not.
The study seemed to him a most delightful place. Forthwith he adopted it
as his lair. By the third morning he was out of danger and indeed was
practically well again. But he had acquired the study-habit; a habit
which lasted throughout his short life.
From that time on, it was Treve’s study; not mine. The tin cracker box
became his treasure chest; a thing to be guarded as jealously as ever
was the Nibelungen Hoard or the Koh-i-noor.
If he chanced to be lying in any other room, and a dog unconsciously
walked between him and the study, Treve bounded up from the soundest
sleep and rushed growlingly to the study door, whence he snarled
defiance at the possible intruder. If he were in the study and another
dog ventured near, Treve’s teeth were bared and Treve’s fore-feet were
planted firmly atop the tin box; as he ordered away the potential
despoiler of his hoard.
No human, save only the Mistress and myself, might enter the study
unchallenged. Grudgingly, Treve conceded her right and mine to be there.
But a rush at the ankles of any one else discouraged ingress. I remember
my daughter stopped in there one day to speak to me; on her way for a
swim. As the bathing-dressed figure appeared on the threshold, Treve
made a snarling rush for it. Alternately and vehemently he bit both bare
ankles.
“I wish he wouldn’t do that,” complained my daughter, annoyed. “He
_tickles_ so when he bites!”
No expert trainer has worked more skilfully and tirelessly over a Derby
winner than did Robert Friend over that dog’s shimmering red-gold coat.
For an hour or more every day, he groomed Treve, until the burnished fur
stood out like a Circassian beauty’s coiffure and glowed like molten
gold. The dog stood moveless throughout the long and tedious process;
except when he obeyed the order to turn to one side or the other or to
lift his head or to put up his paws for a brushing of the silken
sleeve-ruffles.
It was Robert, too, who hit on the scheme which gave Treve his last
show-victory; when the collie already had won fourteen of the needful
fifteen points which should make him a Champion of Record.
Perhaps you think it is easy to pilot even the best of dogs through the
gruelling ordeals that go to make up those fifteen points. Well, it is
not.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account