The Pointer Who Wanted Pudding

The Pointer Who Wanted Pudding

A young sow in the New Forest took a liking to a gamekeeper’s pointer puppies. She played with them, fed beside them, and sometimes followed them away from home. In the 1901 collection A Hundred Anecdotes of Animals, their keeper begins to wonder whether this unlikely companion might learn their work.^[1]

He tempted her farther with barley-meal pudding. His other method was cruel: he carried stones to throw when she misbehaved. That detail belongs to the account, along with its admiration for the result.

The sow reportedly learned to search the ground with the dogs. When a scent was faint, she slowed her trot and lowered her ears and tail. Once certain, she dropped onto her knees and held her position. The book says she could remain there for five minutes or more.

When the game rose, she returned to the keeper. If the pudding did not follow promptly, she grunted loudly for it. The narrator marvels at the pig’s resemblance to a pointer. Her demand for the promised reward gives the story its own, unmistakably porcine, finish.