DOG COMMITS SUICIDE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19215, 2 January 1926, Page 2 (Supplement)

DOG COMMITS SUICIDE.

THiIRD ATTEMPT SUCCEEDS.' after defeat in battle. THE TRAGEDY OF A PEKINGESE. A twelve-years-old Pekingese dog, belonging to Miss Aileen Leader, of Classes, near Coacbford, Cork, has deliberately committed suicide by drowning after two unsuccessful attempts.

Tho dog had been the favourite pet of the family since puppyhood, and had lorded it, without dispute, over a Blenheim spaniel and a small mongrel terrier. Ho had frequent fights with both dogs at the beginning of his career, but won them all, and was treated ever after with the respect due to au invincible warrior. The supremacy of the Pekingese remained unquestioned until tho end of August, when Miss Leader bought a young, pure-bred, wire-haired fox terrier. Ho took a week to size up the Pekingese, and then offered bat ie. The estate was too small to hold th_m both. They fought daily and bitterly until tho old

dog was so badly mauled that he lay half insensible for half a day. Miss Leader sent away the terrier immediately and nursed the Pekingese back to something like his ordinary health, but be was a different dog. He moped. Ho, ulunk away . for long periods. He even suffered the aged spaniel to" usurp his place by the fire. Then one day a gardener working, by' the stream which runs through the ground saw the Pekingese walk into the water. He made no effort to swim, and sank. The man dashed into the water, rescued the dog, and carried him up to the house with the astounding story. Three days later the Pekingese went into the village and jumped off the stone bridge into the same stream. He was rescued again by a man who heard the splash and again taken home. He made his last and successful attempt to end the shame of his defeat by the terrier. The stream becomes a small river after it leaves the Classas estate, and lit was in some shallows half a mile away that Miss Leader, who had missed the dog, found his sodden and limp little body, So he died, convinced that nothing could be worse than to exist in a kingIdom from whose throne he had been deposed.