A DOG-STORY.
[TO TEL EDITOR Or THE "SrsorAToR."] SIR,—Perhaps you may think the following worthy to rank among your interesting series of " animal stories." A friend of mine living in this neighbourhood has a very handsome Welsh terrier. Taffy' is a great pet and in high favour, but is unfortunately somewhat independent in character and prone to taking long rambles by himself, unbeknown to the members of the family and in defiance of their express wishes. He has been guilty, too, of returning home in the small hours of the morning, and, worse still, of announcing his arrival in so vociferous a manner as to invite condign punishment. On Saturday last he was let out before dinner, at about 6.30 p.m., and failed to respond when his name was called a short time afterwards ; nothing more was seen of him, but about 9 p.m. a clanking noise as of chains was heard in the stable - yard, and the retriever kennelled there commenced to bark furiously, and refused to keep quiet in spite of repeated admonitions from the billiard-room window. At 11 p.m., as the family was retiring for the night, the same clanking noise was heard out- side the entrance door, and on seeking for the cause poor Taffy' was discovered with his paw imprisoned in a large gin trap ; attached to the trap was an unusually heavy iron chain, and to that again an iron pin, some 12 in. in length, forming altogether a murderous instrument, and one quite unworthy of a hunting district. The dog in his struggles to release himself had no doubt drawn the pin out of the ground, and then made for home, dragging the trap with him,—no small feat for a dog of his size, considering the weight of the trap and the fact that he must have come some distance. The strange thing is the omission of the dog to announce his arrival in the usual way. It would seem, therefore, that he regarded the trap as a punishment for his absence, and thinking it had been imposed by authority, feared to rouse the house in case worse might befall him. This is, I think, the more remarkable, taking into consideration the intense pain the poor creature must have been suffering, and the un- doubted fact that he was about the place for quite two hours before he was diecovered.—I am, Sir, &c., Warwick, October 11th. G. G. TARRY.
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