| The Irish Wolf-dog
This animal is nearly extinct, or only to be met with at the mansions of
one or two persons by whom he is kept more for show than use, the wild
animals which he seemed powerful enough to conquer having long
disappeared from the kingdom. The beauty of his appearance and the
antiquity of his race are his only claims, as he disdains the chase of
stag, fox, or hare, although he is ever ready to protect the person and
the property of his master. His size is various, some having attained
the height of four feet, and Dr. Goldsmith stales that he saw one as
large as a yearling calf. He is shaped like a greyhound, but stouter;
and the only dog which the writer from whom this account is taken ever
saw approaching to his graceful figure, combining beauty with strength,
is the large Spanish wolf-dog: concerning which he adds, that, showing
one of these Spanish dogs to some friends, he leaped through a window
into a cow-house, where a valuable calf was lying, and seizing the
terrified animal, killed it in an instant; some sheep having in the same
way disappeared, he was given away. The same writer says that
his grandfather had an Irish wolf-dog which saved his mother's life from a
wolf as she was paying a visit attended by this faithful follower. He
rushed on his foe just when he was about to make his spring, and after a
fierce struggle laid him dead at his mistress's feet. His name was Bran. Back to: Greyhound Dog
Back to: Dog Types
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