Dogs, work, loyalty, and medieval medicine

Dogs worked as trackers, sheep guards, and defenders of their owners' property. The medieval bestiary discussed here gives dogs six pages while granting cats only a brief mention. Classical stories praise dogs that refuse to leave dead or dying masters, but Richard II's dog Mathe reportedly transferred its allegiance to Henry IV after the king's deposition. Henry treated the change as a good omen for his reign and for England's loyalty to the new regime, though a joke about steak in his pocket undercuts the political symbolism. The passage then turns to unsettling medieval remedies, including claims that a dog's tongue could heal intestinal wounds and that boiled puppies could treat gout.