Pet Stories

"Robin, robin redbreast, Singing on the bough, Come and get your breakfast, We will feed you now. Robin likes the golden grain, Nods his head and sings again: 'Chirping, chirping c...

Once upon a time the owl and the raven were fast friends. They lived beside the same stream. They built their nests in a tree side by side. They sang the same songs. They ate the s...

That evening, as the family sat beside the hearth, Phyllis thought of the brave little chickadees out in the fir-trees. "I wonder if they are really warm enough," she said. "Do fea...

Does not go south in winter. Song--two or three clear long whistles and the chirping of his own name, "chickadee." A gay, curious little bird. Black head and throat--sides of head...

One morning in the early spring a raven was sitting on one of the branches of an old oak. He felt very ugly and cross, and could only say, "Croak! Croak!" Soon a little robin, who...

[Feb. 6, 1875.] I have two dogs, two cats, and a kitten. Many years of experience have shown me, in the teeth of all proverbs, that cats and dogs, members of the same household, li...

Most of our animals, also many creeping things, such as our "wilde wormes in woods," common toads, natter-jacks, newts, and lizards, and stranger still, many insects, have been tam...

[Nov. 20, 1880.] I was much interested in the account of the friendship that existed between the young retriever and the donkey whom he released by gnawing the rope. The little inc...

[June 8, 1895.] The interesting letter, "A Canine Nurse," in the Spectator of May 18th, recalls to mind an equally curious event in cat and dog life which occurred some years since...

[Feb. 9, 1895.] In illustration of the anecdotal letters about dogs and their habits, in the Spectator of February 2nd, and Mr. Lang's paper in this month's Nineteenth Century, I s...

... "In life the firmest friend, The first to welcome, foremost to defend, Whose honest heart is still his master's own, Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone." "Near...

Dear dog, that seems to stand and gravely brood Upon the broad veranda of our home With soulful eyes that gaze into the gloam-- With speaking tail that registers thy mood,-- Men sa...

General Fremont found this powerful brute to be a gregarious and confiding creature, fond of his family and not given to disturbing those who did not disturb him. In his report to...

Mount Sinai, Heart of the Sierras--this place is one mile east and a little less than one mile perpendicular from the hot, dusty and dismal little railroad town down on the rocky b...

By rules of fitness and of tense, By all old canine precedents, Oh, Adult Dog, the time is up When I may fondly call you Pup. The years have sped since first you stood In straddle-...

Let us now leave the great grizzly and the little marsh bear in spectacles behind us and tell about a boy, a bear-slayer; not about a bear, mind you. For the little fish-eating bla...

When my father settled down at the foot of the Oregon Sierras with his little family, long, long years ago, it was about forty miles from our place to the nearest civilized settlem...

I know an old Indian who was terribly frightened by an old monster grizzly and her half-grown cub, one autumn, while out gathering manzanita berries. But badly as he was frightened...

O jewel of my heart, I sing your praise, Though you who are, alas! of middle age Have never been to school, and cannot read The weary printed page. I sing your eyes, two pools in s...

Little lad, little lad, and who's for an airing, Who's for the river and who's for a run; Four little pads to go fitfully faring, Looking for trouble and calling it fun? Down in th...