FIDELITY OF A DOG

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 May 1927, Page 8

FIDELITY OF A DOG

LONG SIX YEARS’ VIGIL.

At the beginning of the 1921 harvest, two men arrived at Mildura, Victoria, for the grape picking, taking with- them a yellow and white dog, evidently half collie, which was devoted to them. At the end of the harvest, the pickers departed, leaving the dog at the camp. Day after day, the dog remained at its post, watching for the return of its owners. As time went on, people living in the vicinity approached the dog with the idea of giving it food, but the animal invariably ran away. Every night it has visited the municipal rubbish depot, where it has obtained food enough to sustain it. Not once has the dog been absent during the day time; it has watched and waited for its masters’ return.

The dog is aged 15 or 16 years, and has become completely deaf. “I always see it when F am near the brick kilns,” said a resident lately, “but it runs away at my approach: in fact, during all these years it has never made friends with either man or dog. It keeps exclusively to itself, and still appears to be waiting for its masters’ return. It is a wonderful case of a dog’s fidelity.”