RUS IN URBE : Dogged loyalty of man's best friend.

(From Irish Independent)

There have been many recorded instances by the eminent 19th centurynaturalist W H Hudson, and others, of bird and animal grief for mates - and evencreatures of other species to which they had become attached. And, of course, for the master, man himself.

An observation, I think of Hudson's, was of a vixen which, having found her mate dead ina woodland, visited the remains every day to lick its head as if to revive it and thenbeginning, after a time, by dearth of scraping and digging, to cover the corpse with soil and leaves and effectively bury it. The animal continued to sit by the grave for long periods.

I have experience of a somewhat different story of dog and master. The animal would notlet anybody near the house when its owner was taken to hospital so the sick man instructed neighbours to capture it and drag it to a telephone so that the owner couldspeak to it from his hospital bed. On hearing its master's voice the dog calmed down andallowed neighbours to attend to the cows and other matters around the farm.

Most of us, at one time or another, have experienced grief at the loss of a pet. But theopposite is also true, when the animal mourns for the human. Stories of cat and dog fidelity are legion but the latter usually carries its sorrow more expressively. Cats may wellgrieve at the departure of a human companion but they keep much of it to themselves.

Napoleon was said to have been haunted by the battlefield sight of a dog howling by thebody of a dead soldier. He is supposed to have observed that, although the soldier hadmany comrades, none was there to mourn him but his faithful dog.

The classic story of dog grief, though, must be that of Greyfriars ...