Then we went to the Salisbury Kennels and saw Peter and Cherry. Peter barked. The T.T. saw how like he was to her other Peter. She liked him at once and liked him very much at once....We paid the cheque $75, got Peter's pedigree and he sat on my knee...(October 7 and 8, 1930, John Cowper Powys, The Diary of 1930)

I bought "The Black" — and I had to pay heavily for him, for he has more ancestors in his pedigree than many of my friends possess — at some kennels on the great Highway between Poughkeepsie and Albany — when he was already three years old. This fact acounts for one of his most curious eccentricities. The singlular link between us — the link between two "Degenerates" who can name their eight grandparents — is of a special kind. The "Very Old" knows nothing of the tradition or convention about "master and dog". In his doting simplicity he thinks we are just equal friends.
(Autobiography)