Dogs and All about Them

CHAPTER XXXVI THE IRISH TERRIER The dare-devil Irish Terrier has most certainly made his home in our bosom. There is no breed of dog more genuinely loved by those who have sufficient experience and knowledge to make the comparison. Other dogs have a larger share of innate wisdom, others are most aesthetically beautiful, others more peaceable; but our rufous friend has a way of winning into his owner's heart and making there an abiding place which is all the more secure because it is gained by sincere and undemonstrative devotion. Perhaps one likes him equally for his faults as for his merits. His very failings are due to his soldierly faithfulness and loyalty, to his too ardent vigilance in guarding the threshold, to his officious belligerence towards other canines who offend his sense of proprietorship in his master. His particular stature may have some influence in his success as a chum. He is just tall enough to rest his chin upon one's knee and look up with all his soul into one's eyes. Whatever be the secret of his attraction 'tis certain that he has the Hibernian art of compelling affection and forgiveness, and that he makes one value him, not for the beauty of his ruddy raiment, the straightness of his fore-legs, the set of his eye and ear, the levelness of his back, or his ability to win prizes, but rather for his true and trusty heart, that exacts no return and seeks no recompense. He may be but an indifferent specimen of his kind, taken in as a stranger at the gates; but when at length the inevitable time arrives, as it does all too soon in canine nature, one then discovers how surely one has been harbouring an angel unawares.