a kind dog, liverpool

An ill-fated cat fell into the hands of some juvenile ruffians commencing the first stage of cruelty. They alternately stoned their victim, dragged it through a pool of dirty water, beat it and bruised it, and menaced it with drowning. Bipeds passed by unheeding the agonised animal's cries of distress, but a dog having contemplated for some time this scene of inhumanity, and barked his disapprobation, rushed forward, furiously drove one by one the little wretches from the spot, and rescuing the fainting and bleeding animal from the deep ditch, bore it off to his quarters. He then placed it on the straw, licked it all over, and laid down by it; and after this he brought it provision, and the people of the house, inspired by his example, gave it warm milk. Day after day did the dog tend the sick object of his care till it was recovered; and for many years after they were to be seen at the Talbot Inn, Liverpool.

 -- from George R. Jesse, Researches into the History of the British Dog, With Original Anecdotes, and Illustrations of the Nature and Attributes of the Dog, From the Poets and Prose Writers of Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Times (London: Robert Hardwick, 1866) pp. 122-3.