"on a favourite dog" c. 1715

thanks british library flickr (PD)

Mary Monck (Irish, d. 1715)  was the second daughter of the first Viscount Molesworth; the wife of George Monck of Dublin; accomplished in Latin, Spanish and Italian; and a poet whose verse was published by her father after her death.  In that slim volume, titled Marinda: Poems and Translations upon Several Occasions, there's the following short and tender reflection:

On a Favourite Dog
Press gently on him, earth, and all around
Ye flowers spring up, and deck th' enamelled ground,
Breathe forth your choicest odours, and perfume
With all your fragrant sweets his little tomb.

This was likely in honor of her father's white greyhound, who died in 1714 and in whose honor a monument was raised near the family's English estate in Yorkshire.  You can see that monument and read more on its history here. (Scroll to page 2.)

Poem found in:  Squire, John Collings, Sir, 1884-1958. A Book of Women's Verse. Oxford: The Clarendon press, 1921, p. 48.

dog law, ireland c. 500

It seems a great deal of early Irish law had to do with distress - that is, the seizure of personal property in satisfaction of a debt.  In the "Senchus Mor," the legal code recorded round this time, the list of possible items to take and the wait times before each were spelled out to the finest degree.

So here's what happened if you planned to relieve the ancient Irish of their dogs:

For a hound of the dunghill, i.e. the dog outside the door. For the watch-dog for every kind of cattle, i.e. every watch-dog of the three watch-dogs is a thing of necessity, i.e. there is a stay of one day upon the distress that is taken for obtaining restitution of these watch-dogs. For a lap-dog, i.e. that is in a house, i.e. the lap-dog of a queen; or it is the lap-dog of the pregnant woman; and it is her husband that takes distress for it, for if it were a woman the stay would be two days. For a watch-dog, i.e. the chained dog, i.e. the hound that does the three things, i.e. drives off robbers, &, i.e. there is a stay of one day upon the distress which is taken for the restitution of all these dogs. For the lawful hunting-hound, i.e. the hound which is kept for pursuing thieves, i.e. the fully-lawful hound; or for pursuing the deer at the time of hunting.

Ireland., . (18651901). Ancient laws of Ireland ..: Published under direction of the commissioners for publishing the ancient laws and institutes of Ireland. Dublin: Printed for H. M. Stationery off., published by A. Thom. 145.

holy celtic pets

thanks wikimedia commons (PD:US) and the British Library
Illustration of a fox; detail of a miniature from the Rochester Bestiary, BL Royal 12 F xiii, f. 26v.
Held and digitised by the British Library

. . . Erc, one of Patrick's disciples who lived beside the Boyne, kept a flock of geese, and the half of one of their eggs did him for twenty-four hours. (We are here reminded how the monks sometimes tamed the wild animals and birds of the wood, and turned them into pets. It is related of St. Kieran of Saigir that a fox, a wolf, a badger, and a wild boar were thus domesticated by him, and that he was wont to call them his monks, and himself their abbot. They were in such subjection that when the fox committed a theft, and St. Kieran required him to do penance, he submitted as if he knew all about it! St. Kevin of Glendalough is said to have had a blackbird that laid her eggs and hatched her brood in his hand! But this is only by the way.)

- from James Heron, The Celtic Church in Ireland: The Story of Ireland and Irish Christianity (Service & Paton, 1898), pp. 138-9.  The illustration is only because it's a thieving fox and it's splendid.