fable: the old dog and his master

Another fable from Aesop that I had never seen before, and one with a particularly bittersweet lesson for those of us watching our dogs grow old.  I've left it in the older English of the source.
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Men ought not to dispraise the ancient, nor to put them backe, for if thou be young, thou oughtest to desire greatly to come to be old, also thou oughtest to praise the acts or deeds, which they have done in their young age, whereof Aesop rehearseth to us such a fable. There was a Lord which had a dog, the which in his youth had beene of good kind: as namely to chase and hunt, and to have great lust to run and take the wild beasts. And when this dogge was come to old age, and that he could no more run, it hapned once that he let goe and escaped from him a Hare, wherefore his Master was wroth and angry, and in great rage began to beat him. Then said the Dogge unto him, My Master, for good service thou yeeldest me evil: for in my young age and prosperity, I served thee right well, and now that I am come to my old age, thou hatest and setteth me backe. Remember, I pray thee how that in my young age I was strong and lustie, and now when I am old and feeble, thou settest nothing by me. Therefore, who so doth any good in his youth, in his old age he shall not continue in the vertues which he possessed in his youth.

 -- from Bicknell, Ethel E. Praise of the Dog: an Anthology. London: G. Richards, 1902. pp. 33-34.

modern fable: the hound and the bulldog

From a book of wacky fables, published in Kansas in 1900:

-- McNeal, T. A. 1853-1942. Tom McNeal's Fables. Topeka, Kan.: Crane & company, 1900. p. 139.

unusual modern dog fables

From a 1924 book of modern and frankly odd fables:

The Druggist, the Little Girl and Her Dog
A self-recording scale stood on the sidewalk in front of a drug store. A Woman, accompanied by her little Girl and her Dog, approached the scale. The Dog jumping on the platform, the Mother of the Girl said: "Get off, Jack; this is not for you," while the Girl, seeing the weight recorded, called out, "Forty pounds!" The Druggist standing in the doorway of the store, hearing the command of the Girl's mother, remarked, "I am willing that my scale be used by all that are my friends, the lowly as well as the high." "I am glad to hear you say that," said the Girl. "My Dog is low, but he looks up friendly to everybody."

The Dog at the Window and the Girl
A Dog was looking out of a window opening on a street, when a little Girl standing on the opposite side observed him. The Dog was motionless and the Girl was uncertain whether he was alive, or whether what she saw was the stuffed figure of the animal. So she crossed the street, and approaching the Dog smiling, he extended his head so that she could pat it.
(Moral:) To make a friend one has to approach his heart.
-- Sonntag, Lincoln. Up-to-date Animal And Other Fables. [Tarrytown, N.Y.], 1924. pp. 16, 65

a tale from india: the lion, the mouse, the cat

thanks pixabay (CC:00)

Once upon a time a lion had a cave in the hills, where he would have been very content if it wasn't for the cheeky mouse that nibbled him at night.  Tiring of this, the lion hired the best cure for a mouse: a cat. . .but the story doesn't end there.  Does the cat earn his keep?  Does he get his just reward?  Find out in this version of the Indian Hitopadesha fable of the Cat who Served the Lion.  (A more  flavorful translation of the fable, ingrained in its overall story cycle, is here.)

fable: the eagle, the cat, and the sow

british library (PD)

In this fable, found in a collection dated 1818, a cat tells some very wicked lies.  

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THE EAGLE, THE CAT, AND THE SOW.
An Eagle had built her nest upon the top branches  of an old oak; a Wild Cat inhabited a hole in the middle; and in the hollow part at the bottom was a Sow with a whole litter of Pigs. A happy neighbourhood, and might long have continued so, had it not been for  the wicked insinuations of the designing Cat: for first of all, up she crept to the Eagle, and, Good neighbour, says she, we shall all be undone; that filthy Sow yonder does nothing but lie rooting at the foot of the tree, and, as I suspect, intends to grub it up, that she may the more easily come at our young ones. For my part, I will take care of my own concerns, you may do as you please; but I will watch her motions, though I stay at home this month for it. When she had said this, which could not fail of putting the Eagle into a great fright, down she went, and made a visit to the Sow at the bottom: putting on a sorrowful face, I hope, says she, you do not intend to go abroad to-day: why not? says the Sow: nay, replies the other, you may do as you please, but I overheard the Eagle tell her young ones, that she would treat them with a Pig the first time she saw you go out; and I am not sure but she may take up with a Kitten in the mean time; so good morrow to you, you will excuse me, I must go and take care of the little folks at home. Away she went accordingly, and by contriving to steal out softly at nights for her prey, and to stand watching and peeping all day at her hole, as under great concern, she made such an impression upon the Eagle and the Sow, that neither of them dared to venture abroad, for fear of the other; the consequence of which was, that they in a little time were starved, and their young ones fell a prey to the treacherous Cat and her Kittens.

APPLICATION.
This shews us the ill consequence of giving ear to a gossiping double-tongued neighbour. Many sociable well-disposed families have been blown up into a perpetual discord, by one of these wicked go-betweens; so that whoever would avoid the imputation of being a bad neighbour, should guard both against receiving ill impressions by hearsay, and uttering his opinions of others, to those busy bodies, who, to gratify a malignant disposition, or gain some selfish end of their own, can magnify a gnat to the size of a camel, or swell a mole-hill to a mountain.

--from Bewick, T., Aesop., . (1818). The fables of Aesop, and others. Newcastle: Printed by E. Walker for T. Bewick and son. Sold by them, Longman and Co. London, and all booksellers. 39-40