Thy Servant a Dog

by Rudyard Kipling

A novella composed of three long stories, as narrated by Boots, a terrier owned by an affluent British couple in the country.

In the first eponymous story, Boots tells how his master met and married a woman with another terrier named Slippers.  Written in fractured and limited English, the story is a series of the two dogs’ simple adventures, from nipping at cows to rolling in bad smells to welcoming the couple’s new baby.  And they meet Ravager, a hunting hound, who grows from a clumsy puppy to a strong, “dretful” pack leader, but remains their friend.

In “The Great Play Hunt,” Ravager, after being hit by a car and can no longer run with the pack, is given to the now older boy.  The three dogs stage a hunt for the boy’s benefit and pleasure with the collaboration of Tags, a lame, friendly fox.

In “Toby Dog,” they meet a trick dog owned by a cockney con artist; Toby helps the pensioned Ravager get some pride back through his trickery.  All wonderful, funny and heart-warming stories.  But Ravager gets sicker, strains himself, and dies; this would be bad enough, but the book just ends there, with Boots mourning his friend, miserable and not understanding why he will not “unsleep” and why they have put him in dirt like a bone.  A very bleak and abrupt ending to such a joyous series of tales; it made me upset.