It was growl for growl.

Nevertheless I was well pleased at having escaped the consequences in speaking kindly to him.

I am not a "doggy" person nor even a canophilist.

The purely parasitic or degenerate pet dog moves me to compassion, but the natural vigorous outdoor dog I fear and avoid because we are not in harmony; consequently I suffer and am a loser when he forces his company on me.

The outdoor world I live in is not the one to which a man goes for a constitutional, with a dog to save him from feeling lonely, or, if he has a gun, with a dog to help him kill something.