Part I Chapter 12 Doctor Dolittle's Garden by Hugh Lofting
DOGS' JOBS
A few nights after Jip had ended his story about the Top-knot Terriers the Doctor happened to be present again at one of the after-dinner story-telling sessions at the Home for Crossbred Dogs. And, as usual, he was asked to tell a tale himself.
He rose and said he was sorry he could not think of any at the moment but he had been greatly interested in what Quetch had said about the business of sheep-herding.
"This," he went on, "is an example of something that dogs can do better than anyone else. Now there are other things that dogs can do—I mean in a professional way. Their experiences, even if they did not form very long stories, would be, I think, well worth hearing—and instructive. Will all those dogs present who have ever worked professionally please stand up?"
At that, to our considerable surprise, a good dozen or more dogs rose among the audience and waved a paw or something to attract attention. There were some who had been watch dogs; one had worked in an Esquimau sleigh-team; another had done duty as a life-guard at a children's swimming beach; one, a St. Bernard, said he had been employed at the famous monastery in the Alps and rescued lost travellers from mountain snow-storms; another got up and told us he had led a blind man through city streets and helped him earn a living; a funny old veteran of a blood-hound said he had been employed as a tracker by a prison to hunt down prisoners who ran away; two others said they had worked in Holland pulling vegetable barrows around like horses; another had been a collector for charity, going through the city with a tin box on his back into which people put pennies for the cause of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; several sporting dogs had spent years at the various jobs dogs do in retrieving, tracking and pointing with the guns. And there were many more.
"Well, now you see," said the Doctor, "we have here a great many members who have worked for their living. If some of them would tell us of their experiences and a little about the job which they were employed in, I'm sure it would be most interesting."
This was eventually done. Each dog gave us a short talk on the profession he had followed, sometimes about the job itself and sometimes part of his experiences while employed in it. These I took down and made into a separate chapter called "Dogs' Jobs" in my book entitled, Tales of the Home for Crossbred Dogs.