DOGS AND DOG LOVERS 221 



Wilkins we see how the love even of a cat may come 

 to be regarded as a human right or need. The old 

 woman who had lost her cat (he afterwards emerged 

 half starved from the cellar), rebelled against the 

 will of God. She allowed that the happiness of 

 husband and children was possibly not to be 

 expected by everyone, but "there was cats enough 

 to go all round." 



I think it impossible to account for the especial 

 affection that we bear to certain dogs. Dogs are, 

 as I have said, in a degree hke our children; they 

 come to us and they have to be tended, fed, and 

 guarded, and in these services we learn to love 

 them. And when our aifection is reflected back 

 to us from the thing we love, it gains an especially 

 touching quality. In the case of dogs our affection 

 is certainly not a response to any inherent charm 

 obvious to all the world — and here again they 

 resemble children. The dog I loved best was an 

 inferior Irish terrier, who gave me much trouble 

 and anxiety. He was constantly fighting ; he 

 barked fiercely at innocent \'isitors. He killed 

 chickens, and for this I had to beat him cruelly, 

 tie him up and leave him trembling with a dead 

 victim round his neck, a punishment for which I 

 still feel remorse, though it saved him from being 

 shot as a criminal, and cured him of his murderous 

 tendency for many years. Pat was not a clever 

 dog, and when striving to learn certain simple 

 tricks he used to fall into abysses of miserable 

 stupidity, and give up all hope of winning the 

 biscuit earned by his fellow-dog, a Scotch terrier, 

 with all the intelligent certainty of his nation. Pat 



