I'm reading Sir Ranulph Fiennes "Race to the Pole" right now and it's fantastic-- how amazing that 100 years ago, the first person to reach the South Pole was on his way back to England!
From Scott's letter to his niece upon his second Polar journey, November 1910 regarding the sledge dogs:
"The dogs are rather fierce and the people who don't know them have to be careful not to go too close or they would get bitten -- but wasn't it funny -- there was a girl the same age as Phoebe who went up to the fiercest dog of all and put her arms round his neck -- and the dog didn't mind at all. When you grow older you will understand that there are lots of animals and lots of people who are like that dog."
Meg, I love that book. And I have to tell you that despite being a dog & animal lover all my life, I was bitten rather badly last month in my own home by a visitor's dog when I started to sit down on my sofa to have a chat with the visitor.
ReplyDeleteI took it rather personally - did it mean I have something about me that the dog disliked enough to attack? Or was he just in love with my sofa and had claimed it for his own?? I emailed Cesar Milan, but haven't gotten a reply...
It's pretty amazing, though I got my dates mixed up-- 100 years ago today, Scott was in the thick of it out on the ice!
ReplyDeleteAnd how awful! Perhaps the pup was just having a bad day? I'm out of sorts now; I've been wanting a dog for ages but our landlord just put the kaibosh on puppies and larger breeds (I was looking at a 4 month old pit/lab mix) so no furballs for us :(