228 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



the one object in life, with this curious condition, that 

 as a rule they think nothing worth taking and keeping 

 unless they can obtain it in the house. They sit on 

 the watch at all the doors, or keep an eye from a 

 distance on unguarded entrances, and then trickle in 

 like water when a sluice is partly open. When beaten 

 they admit that it hurts ; but they do it again as soon 

 as the door is left ajar. Single puppies, puppies in 

 pairs, puppies in strings, may be seen emerging with a 

 kind of glum satisfaction after one of these raids, one 

 with a boot, another with a hat, another with a duster, 

 another dragging a door-mat and tumbling over it. 

 They usually try to tear these things up as small 

 as possible, with a hazy idea of burying them after. 

 But the tearing up is the main object, and the one 

 generally carried out. They seem to regard it as 

 a form of work for which they ought to take 

 credit. 



Greyhound puppies have the reputation of being 

 the most mischievous of the mischievous brotherhood 

 of puppies. They inherit this to some extent, for a 

 large percentage of greyhounds when grown up are 

 inveterate thieves and chicken-killers, not from any 

 particular vice, but because " it is their nature to," 

 and they have not the moral sense which other dogs 

 possess. The writer recently remarked when stopping 

 in a country inn that one of the greyhounds which 

 were allowed the run of the house had stolen the 

 butter from the breakfast-table. " Ah," was the reply, 

 " I reckon he a' most live on that." It is considered 

 specially good for young greyhounds, like foxhound 



