Odds and Ends
Shaggy dog stories Boyd Jones, BVSc, FACVSc, DECVIM-Ca
“The dog did nothing in the night time.” “That is the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes.
Some years ago, I was given a copy of Brewer’s Dictionary of Fame and Fable (19th edition) by Dr Darren Merrett, my cotutor for the CVE course in internal medicine which we taught together for the University of Sydney for many years. The book sat on a bookshelf with occasional reference searches but it was not until COVID and “home confinement” that it received a real read and ongoing consultation. The book contains thousands of items: curiosities, odds and ends and themes related to literature, language, and our daily lives. It is a fun read with many surprises and chuckles over meanings of words, origins of sayings and literary quotations.
Dogs in classics and legends must include Odysseus’ dog Argos (Figure 1), who, after waiting 20 years whilst his master was fighting in Troy and making his return journey home to Ithaca, recognises his master although he was disguised as a beggar to enable him to enter his house and expel his wife Penelope’s suitors! Argos who is old and neglected is lying in cow manure and infested with ticks and fleas. He recognises Odysseus but can’t get up to greet his master; however he drops his ears and wags his tail. Odysseus, who does not want to be recognised, sheds a tear but does not acknowledge the faithful Argos. Argos dies.
The short section on dogs appealed to me. So many familiar (and some unfamiliar) sayings and quotations many of which we use in everyday language and in writing. We are all familiar with dogleg (golfers), dog collar (the church), dog’s dinner (a mess), dog tags (military), as sick as a dog (of biblical origin, Proverbs 26:ii, Peter 2:22), dog’s life (a miserable existence), go to the dogs (to go to ruin morally or materially – food unfit for human consumption was given to the dogs). Dogs bollocks (the very best or most outstanding) – a British slang expression perhaps inspired by the notion of conspicuousness according to Brewer? Not sure we use bollocks in the same context. More I see of men the more I love dogs has obvious meaning, whether correct or incorrect is for you to decide! It is attributed to Madame de Sévigné (17th century), Madame Roland (18th Century) and Frederick the Great of Prussia (18th Century). Did I know that Winston Churchill had a poodle called Rufus? Or that Richard Nixon had a dog called Checkers mentioned in his 1952 Checkers speech? I did remember that the Newfoundland, Nana from Peter Pan was the Darling children’s nurse and that Mr Darling was confined to the dog kennel until his children returned, as a penance for his treatment of Nana. Perhaps now we associate the phrase in the dog house as being applied to a husband who has upset his wife/partner or has been behaving badly and is shunned? I knew the phrase Dog in the night time meant an unwitting party to a crime and was in reference to a dog by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in, I thought, Hound of the Baskervilles – but it was not, it was from his story the Silver Blaze in which the dog did not bark because it knew the man who took the horse from the stables. The exchange between Holmes and inspector Gregory is famous; “Is there a point to which you would wish to draw my attention?” “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” Figure 1. Odysseus and Argos Contact: B.Jones@massey.ac.nz
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Credit: Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OdysseusArgos. jpg#/media/File:OdysseusArgos.jpg
Companion Quarterly: Official Newsletter of the Companion Animal Veterinarians Branch of the NZVA | Volume 32 No 3 | September 2021
