Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1883 — A Plea for the ‘Flee” Dog. [ARTICLE]

A Plea for the ‘Flee” Dog.

There is not a thing about him but pure dog; if he has an ancestor whose courage would seem to urge him to do l a brave deed, such as to snap at the horse or cow, or kill,a chicken, he had another ancestor * that was intensely timid, and, while the two ancient and latent characters are fighting for supremacy, the “fice” is behaving himself. He don’t appear to side with any of his ancient house. He often seems to pause as if undecided in some action, and I conclude it is the old fight of his ancestry. If one wants him to bark, another, of the quiet breed, wants him to keep still. If one wants him to go into the mud and water, another wants him to keep out; so, while the ances-' tral instincts are settling it between themselves, the “fice” is-doing nothing, waiting as it were for a decision. And this law seems to hold all through the whole categery of instincts and peculiarities that make so much trouble. Theoretically the “fice” has all the good and bad traits of the dog family’, but none of them ever crop out, for the simple reason that, when one attempts to assert itself, one on the other side says hold on, and while they are trying to come to a conclusion the “fice” is doing nothing. In fact, he never has anything to do, for if he tries even, the question of priority comes up between the ancestors, and that settles if ; the “fice” never gets a chance to do anything he starts to do, so he can only behave himself and do nothing. To any one who wants a dog pure and simple, I can recommend the “fice.”—American Field. . '• ; '