Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1893 — DEATH OF A DOG IN THE SNOW. [ARTICLE]

DEATH OF A DOG IN THE SNOW.

iiU&Frozen Corpse Discovered and Ex- > numed by His St. Bernard Friend. Romeo is a noble St. Bernard dog and Brutus an English pug. They were owned by a Harlem gentleman and were inseparable friends. Their likes and dislikes were identical. They slept in the same kennel, ate from the same dish and roamed about the yard together. Seldom did they appear on the street and then only with their owner. But on the morning after the recent heavy snowstorm little Brutus did not respond to the breakfast call. Search for.him proved fruitless and Romeo was invited to eat alone, but he refused to touch his food. With an air of evident distress he wandered about the house, at times whining piteously, looking for his companion. His search, too, was in vain, and finally he laid himself down on a rug before the dining-room fire with his head between his paws. But he did not close his eyes. For perhaps an hour he remained there motionless. Then he arose, walked around the room once or twice and then left the apartment. Soon afterward he was heard howling in the back yard and scratching at the door for admission. Members of the family hastened to the spot and found Romeo there standing over the dead body of his friend Brutus, investigation soon solved the mystery. Brutus, it appears, had in some unknown manner wandered out doors into the driving, blinding blast of snow. Unable to return inside the house after barking, howling and scratching for some time he laid down in the snow. He had not been strong for seyeral months, and be soon yielded to the icy breath of winter and was frozen to death. Romeo had, in exploring the yard, found the little fellow’s corpse in a tiny suowbank, and, true to his instincts, drew it out arid tried to carry it to a place of safety. His efforts to restore life to his lost friend’s body were touching, and he seemed to more acutely mourn his loss than any other member of the household. For two days he would not taste a morsel of food, but after thirty-six hours of fasting he allowed himself to be persuaded to eat. Little Brutus’ frozen form was placed ia a shallow grave dug out of the almost solid ground at the foot of the garden, and Romeo was present at the burial. Every movement was closely noticed by him, and when the log’s body was covered he whined and would, if he had not been restrained, have scratched away the lumps of earth that concealed all that renamed of Brutus from his sight. That was several days ago, but Romeo’s grief-is yet as poigDant as ever and he is often heard whining over the tomb of his little friend.—New York Herald.