Anton Chekhov

The Russian playwright and short-story writer had two dachshunds, Bromine (a male) and Quinine (a female). Although lazy and potbellied, Quinine was his favourite. Chekhov wrote of them that “The former is dexterous and lithe, polite and sensitive. The latter is clumsy, fat, lazy and sly… They both love to weep from an excess of feelings.” The author’s family recounted that “every evening Quinine would come up to Anton, put her front paws on his knees and look into his eyes devotedly.” The writer featured dogs in a number of his works, including The Lady With The Dog and Kashtanka – a novel narrated from the point of view of a dachshund mix.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 

A cocker spaniel called Flush was a favoured friend of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. "He & I are inseparable companions," wrote the English poet of her dog, "and I have vowed him my perpetual society in exchange for his devotion." The dog offered companionship to Barrett Browning when confined to her sickbed. Flush was dognapped three times, and Barrett Browning had to pay heavy ransom for his return, which was a common occurrence for dog owners of the genteel classes in Victorian London. He is immortalised as the subject of her poems To Flush, My Dog and Flush or Faunus.

Virginia Woolf

Also greatly inspired by Flush, Virginia Woolf crafted Flush: A Biography, a cross genre, light-hearted blend of fiction and nonfiction narrated from the viewpoint of Barret Browning’s dog. Woolf wrote to a friend of the story that while reading the love letters of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, she found that "the figure of their dog made me laugh so I couldn't resist making him a Life". A dog to Woolf, “somehow represents the private side of life – the play side". Woolf’s first published essay was an obituary for her family's dog and the writer also had her own cocker spaniel, Pinka.