# A Dog's Tale > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/A_Dog's_Tale > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/A_Dog's_Tale.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dog's_Tale > Source revision: 1288983088 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Short story by Mark Twain This article is about the story. For the 2020 play, see [Mikron Theatre Company § Productions](/source/Mikron_Theatre_Company#Productions). A Dog's Tale First edition Author Mark Twain Illustrator W.T. Smedley Language English Published 1904 (Harper & Brothers) Publication place United States Media type Print (Hardback) Pages 55[1] Preceded by Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany Followed by A Horse's Tale "**A Dog's Tale**" is a [short story](/source/Short_story) written by [Mark Twain](/source/Mark_Twain). It first appeared in the December 1903 issue of *[Harper's Magazine](/source/Harper's_Magazine)*. In January of the following year it was extracted into a stand-alone pamphlet published for the [National Anti-Vivisection Society](/source/National_Anti-Vivisection_Society). Still later in 1904 it was expanded into a book published by [Harper & Brothers](/source/Harper_%26_Brothers). ## Plot The book is told from the standpoint of a poor household pet, a dog self-described by the first sentence of the story: "My father was a [St. Bernard](/source/St._Bernard_(dog)), my mother was a [collie](/source/Collie), but I am a [Presbyterian](/source/Presbyterian)." The story begins with a description of the dog's life as a puppy and her separation from her mother, which to her was inexplicable. Her puppy and her owner's new child were soon added to her new home. When a fire breaks out in the nursery, the dog risks her life to drag the baby to safety. In the process, her motives are misunderstood and she is cruelly beaten by the father of the family with a cane, resulting in her leg getting broken. Soon, however, the truth of the situation is discovered and she receives no end of praise. Later in the story, her puppy dies, killed by the father of the family to prove his opinion on optics to his scientist peers. Only a servant seems to realize the irony of this, exclaiming, "Poor little doggie, you saved HIS child!" In the end, the dog (who does not realize her puppy is dead until her own hour is upon her) pines inconsolable over the grave of the puppy with the clear implication that she will do so until death. ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [Facsimile of the original 1st edition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1904._A_Dog%27s_Tale.djvu). ## External links - *[A Dog's Tale](https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/3174)* at [Project Gutenberg](/source/Project_Gutenberg) - [*A Dog's Tale*](https://librivox.org/search?title=A+Dog's+Tale&author=Twain&reader=&keywords=&genre_id=0&status=all&project_type=either&recorded_language=&sort_order=catalog_date&search_page=1&search_form=advanced) public domain audiobook at [LibriVox](/source/LibriVox) v t e Mark Twain Bibliography Novels The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Prince and the Pauper Adventures of Huckleberry Finn A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court The American Claimant Tom Sawyer Abroad Pudd'nhead Wilson Tom Sawyer, Detective Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc A Double Barrelled Detective Story A Horse's Tale The Mysterious Stranger Hellfire Hotchkiss Short stories "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" "Cannibalism in the Cars" "A Literary Nightmare" "A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage" "The Great Revolution in Pitcairn" 1601 "The Stolen White Elephant" "Luck" "The Million Pound Bank Note" "A Double Barrelled Detective Story" "Those Extraordinary Twins" "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" "A Dog's Tale" "Extracts from Adam's Diary" "The War Prayer" "Eve's Diary" "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" "My Platonic Sweetheart" "Advice for Good Little Girls" Collections Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance Sketches New and Old Mark Twain's Library of Humor Merry Tales The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories Plays Is He Dead? Essays "The Awful German Language" "On the Decay of the Art of Lying" "Advice to Youth" How to Tell a Story and Other Essays "Concerning the Jews" "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" "Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany" "What Is Man?" "The United States of Lyncherdom" "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" Letters from the Earth Nonfiction Territorial Enterprise letters Letters from Hawaii The Innocents Abroad Roughing It Old Times on the Mississippi A Tramp Abroad Life on the Mississippi Following the Equator Is Shakespeare Dead? Autobiography of Mark Twain (Chapters from My Autobiography) King Leopold's Soliloquy The Private History of a Campaign That Failed Christian Science Speeches "Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism" "Votes for Women" Places and events Family cabin Birthplace State Historic Site State Park Boyhood home and museum Mark Twain Cave Mark Twain in Nevada Territorial Enterprise Sagebrush School Quarry Farm Mark Twain House Stormfield Twain–Ament indemnities controversy Popular culture Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Mark Twain Readers Award Mark Twain Tonight! The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985) Mark Twain (2001 documentary) Twain and Shaw Do Lunch (2011 play) Mark Twain: The Musical Family Olivia Langdon Clemens (wife) Susy Clemens (daughter) Clara Clemens (daughter) Jean Clemens (daughter) John M. Clemens (father) Jane Lampton Clemens (mother) Orion Clemens (brother) Related Jap Herron Center For Mark Twain Studies Mark Twain (book) Mark Twain National Forest Mark Twain Tree National Tom Sawyer Days This article about a short story (or stories) published in the 1900s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. - [v](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:1900s-story-stub) - [t](/source/Template_talk%3A1900s-story-stub) - [e](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:1900s-story-stub) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [A Dog's Tale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dog's_Tale) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dog's_Tale?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.