Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 285, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 December 1910 — HER FIRST PATIENT A DOG [ARTICLE]

HER FIRST PATIENT A DOG

Florence Nightingale Began Her Work Among the Sick by Caring for Injured Pet Animal.

A name that has been long*, known and loved throughout the world Is that of Florence Nightingale. There is indeed something almost angelic in the sound of the name. “Angel of Mercy" was the title which she bore in life and< by which she will be remembered in death. The heroic service of this noble woman in soldiers* camps and upon battlefields is one of the greatest examples of kindness and selfsacrifice in the annals of human kind. So beloved was this gentle woman, it is said, that the sick and dying used to kiss her shadow as she passed their cots. The elements which made this life of such beauty and determined so useful a career for Florence Nightingale may be best understood from the following story: “Her first experiences as a nurse were with her dolls, whose broken limbs and bruised heads she bandaged and cared for with all the tenderness and gentleness of her nature. "As she grew older she became interested in caring for wounded or sick pets and other animals. Her first patient was a dog named Cap. The dog belonged to one of her father’s shepherds, and one day she learned that had been injured by. some boys and that the shepherd Was preparing to kill his beloved dog in order to save him from the suffering. In spite of the fact that she was still a little girl and very timid, she at once drove to the shepherd’s home, and, with the aid of the clergyman of the parish, she nursed the wounds of the injured animal, and soon he was well again. “Her love for pets and her skill in curing them soon became well known, and in a short time she had become the nurse of all the wounded animals of the neighborhood.”—Our Dumb Animals.