Fluffy and Friends: Dogs in Books Quiz

Answer: He has three heads

Fluffy is a hellhound, the most famous example of his species being Cerberus, who guards the entrance to hell in Greek mythology. In the book, Fluffy's role is to guard the eponymous Philosopher's Stone. His only weakness is a tendency to fall asleep when music is played to him, as Harry and his friends fortunately discover.

Answer: Odysseus

In Homer's narrative, Argos was just a puppy when his master left to fight in the Trojan War, and has waited twenty years for his return. When Odysseus eventually arrives home, disguised as a beggar, only Argos recognises him. Sadly, having done so, the aged Argos dies.

Answer: Richard Adams

Richard Adams is best known as the author of "Watership Down", about a colony of rabbits. "The Plague Dogs" (1977) was his third novel, and tells of two dogs who escape from a research laboratory in the English Lake District. Rowf is a large black mongrel and Snitter is a fox terrier.

Answer: Pyrenean Mountain Dog

The story tells of the adventures of the eponymous pair, who live in a French Alpine village (not, as you might expect, in the Pyrenees). UK viewers of a certain age may remember a dubbed version of the TV series being regularly shown on the BBC over the summer holiday period. There is also a Scottish pop band named "Belle and Sebastian" which took its name from the TV series.

Answer: Three Men in a Boat

The full title of Jerome K Jerome's 1889 comic classic is "Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)". It tells of a rowing-boat trip up the River Thames from Kingston to Oxford undertaken by the narrator and his two friends George and Harris. They are accompanied by the narrator's fox terrier, Montmorency, who plays an incidental but memorable role in many of the events in the book.

Although both George and Harris are based on real friends of Jerome's, Montmorency is (sadly) an entirely fictional creation.

Answer: He contracts rabies

In Stephen King's 1981 novel, Cujo is the family pet of the Camber family. While chasing a rabbit near their home, Cujo contracts the disease after being bitten by a rabid bat. The book's most memorable scene takes place when the rabid Cujo traps two of the main characters, Donna Trenton and her son Tad, in their car. The novel was turned into a film in 1983.

Answer: False

The bull terrier Bulls-eye appears in Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist", and belongs to the villainous Bill Sikes. It is interesting to note that, in the book at least, Dickens describes the dog as being almost as brutal as its master, although its character is usually softened in TV and movie adaptations. Dickens also suggests parallels between Bulls-eye and Sikes' girlfriend, Nancy, in that both remain loyal to him despite his rough treatment of them, and both end up dead.

Answer: A Midsummer Night's Dream

The nameless dog appears in the play-within-a-play performed by the "rude mechanicals" at the end of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Starveling, who is playing the part of Moonshine, says:

"All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the lanthorn is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog."

An ancient legend, still prevalent in Shakespeare's time, was that the "man in the moon" carried a bunch of sticks on his back, and was often accompanied by a dog.

Answer: The Secret Seven

Unlike Timmy, who is numbered as one of the "Five", Scamper (a cocker spaniel) is a supernumerary member of his group. The Secret Seven proper consists of a group of children named Peter and Janet (a brother and sister to whom Scamper belongs), Jack, Pam, Barbara, Colin and George.

Other than the fact that there are more of them, there is not much to distinguish the adventurous activities of the Secret Seven from those of the Famous Five.

Answer: Jip

Jip's specific breed is unclear, although the author's drawings of him in the books suggest that he is a variety of hound (he certainly has excellent tracking skills).

Like a number of other famous children's' books, the "Doctor Dolittle" stories began as letters from their writer to his children, in this case written from the trenches during the First World War. The Doctor's special skill is his ability to talk to animals in their own languages. Hugh Lofting published 12 volumes of stories about the Doctor between 1920 and 1952 (the last three appearing after his death in 1947).