Quotes Dogs

We took the basket into the garden, and there staggered out the angular shadow of a sandy-pied, broken-haired terrier, with one imbecile and one delirious ear, and two most hideous squints. Bettina and Malachi, already at grips on the lawn, saw him, let go, and fled in opposite directions.

This is from “The Dog Hervey”, collected  in A Diversity of Creatures (1917).

The puppy is adopted by a tortured childless woman, who lavishes her affection him. He later  appears as a squinting phantom to her alcoholic lover.

This is an enigmatic tale, in which the dog is a central figure,  which has puzzled many readers. See our notes.

The bull was ploughing along in the dust, fifty yards behind, rolling in his run, and smiling as bull-terriers will. I heard Vixen squeal; half a dozen of the curs closed in on her; a white streak came up behind me; a cloud of dust rose near Vixen, and, when it cleared, I saw one tall pariah with his back broken, and the bull wrenching another to earth.

This is from “Garm, a hostage“, collected in Actions and Reactions (1909)

Garm, a magnificent bull terrier, has been left with the narrator by Private Ortheris  as a hostage for his good behaviour.  Here he rescues the narrator’s little fox terrier from a pack of wild piariah doga.

From now on Garm is a hero in the narrator’s household. But the dog and his master  pine for each other until they are reunited.

Looking through my slit bamboo blinds, I could see the great dog standing, not sleeping, in the veranda, the hackles alift on her back, and her feet planted as tensely as the drawn wire rope of a suspension bridge.

In the very short pauses of the thunder I tried to sleep, but it seemed that some one wanted me very badly.

This is from “The Return of Imray“, collected in Life’s Hanicap” (1891)”

The narrator is staying in Strickland’s bungalow on a wild stormy night in the Rains.  There is a strange uneasy presence in the place,  felt particularly strongly by Strickland’s dog,  Tietjens.

Later they find the body of Imray, the former owner of the bungalow, hidden in the roof with his throat cut.