Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Animal Behaviour, Instinct, Narcotics

    Describes what he considers to be 'an uncommon instance of the "Sagacity in a Dog"'. Explains that he owns a Skye terrier that responds to an unknown rap on the front door with violent barking, and replies to familiar raps with an identifiable subdued barking. The author boasts that he can identify regular callers from the nature of his dog's bark but that one day he made a mistake in interpretation: he thought his dog's bark signified the regular water-carrier when it was a man bringing alcohol from the public house (the dog apparently displayed more hostility to this caller than the water-carrier).