From Anecdotes of Dogs by Edward Jesse, Esq., 1858
The Colley Or Shepherd’s Dog: a sheep-dog whelps while working
The following is, perhaps, a still more extraordinary anecdote of the fidelity shown by a sheep-dog to its charge. It was communicated by Robert Murray, shepherd to Mr. Samuel Richmond, Path of Coudie, near Dunning, in Perthshire.
Murray had purchased for his master four score of sheep at the Falkirk Tryst, but having occasion to stop another day, and confident in the faithfulness and sagacity of his colley, which was a female, he committed the drove to her care, with orders to drive them home,—a distance of about seventeen miles.
The poor animal, when a few miles on the road, dropped two whelps, but, faithful to her charge, she drove the sheep on a mile or two further—then, allowing them to stop, returned for her pups, which she carried for about two miles in advance of the sheep. Leaving her pups, the colley again returned for the sheep, and drove them onwards a few miles. This she continued to do, alternately carrying her own young ones and taking charge of the flock, till she reached home.
The manner of her acting on this occasion was afterwards gathered by the shepherd from various individuals, who had observed these extraordinary proceedings of the dumb animal on the road. However, when the colley reached her home, and delivered her charge, it was found that the two pups were dead.
In this extremity, the instinct of the poor brute was, if possible, still more remarkable. She went to a rabbit-brae in the vicinity, and dug out of the earth two young rabbits, which she deposited on some straw in a barn, and continued to suckle for some time, until one of the farm servants unluckily let down a full sack upon them and smothered them.
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Anton
Christopher
Lawrence Dillard
Lech
Stephanie
Essere
Shows how much attitudes have changed. If that happened today, cries of cruelty would be everywhere.
I like to think I’m tolerant, but calling this bitch a “poor dumb brute” bothers me. As does the idea of being so little in tune with one’s dog that she’s worked right through labor.
Different times, different standards.
‘Dumb’ didn’t mean they were calling her stupid. In the UK there is still the ‘Dumb Friends League’ which uses the archaic meaning of the word, which simply means they don’t have the power of spoken language.
Same goes for ‘brute’, which originally just meant ‘animal’.
So it was not written originally as a hostile insult, as it sounds to us today. Condescending, more like.