In 1903, Mark Twain published A Dog’s Tale, a short story told from the perspective of a dog named Aileen. Half-collie, half–Saint Bernard, Aileen lives with Mr. Gray, a scientist; his wife; and their two children. One winter, a fire starts in the nursery, and Aileen pulls the one-year-old to safety. Mr. Gray and his scientist friends celebrate the rescue, debating whether the animal acted out of instinct or reason. Then their discussion turns to another matter: Is the ability to see located in a certain area of dogs’ brains? When Mr. Gray’s wife and children go on vacation, the scientists use Aileen’s newly born puppy to find out.
The experiment is gruesomely successful. “Suddenly the puppy shrieked, and they set him on the floor, and he went staggering around, with his head all bloody, and the master clapped his hands and shouted: ‘There, I’ve won—confess it! He’s as blind as a bat!’” Twain wrote. “And they all said: ‘It’s so—You’ve proved your theory, and suffering humanity owes you a great debt from henceforth,’ and they crowded around him, and wrung his hand cordially and thankfully, and praised him.” Aileen, the dog that had saved her owner’s child, is rewarded with the killing of her own. Confused about why her puppy is buried in the yard, she grows sick with grief and dies.
