Canon Curiosities!

Program: Sherlock Holmes and Cats

The best-known mention of a cat in the Sherlock Holmes’ canon is not a very positive one.

The reference comes in “The Norwood Builder.” The villain Jonas Oldacre turns a cat loose in an aviary, where the feline supposedly pursues the caged-in birds. The cruelty was one of the reasons the mother of John Hector McFarlane dumps Oldacre. She winds up marrying a better, but poorer man.

Oldacre attempts to get his revenge years later by framing the son, McFarlane, for murder. Fortunately, for all, Sherlock, aided by a smokey blaze and some shouts of “fire,” foils the plan.

For our purposes, the important thing to note is that there are cats in Sherlock Holmes. Maybe not as many as dogs, but there are cats. Though these other cats are merely decorative.

In “The Yellow Face,” Effie Munro has a cat, a black one. This is a case where Holmes fails completely. Effie has been acting mysteriously and her husband Grant calls in Holmes to investigate. Effie had been hiding an interracial daughter from her first marriage. That fooled Holmes.

Holmes tells Watson: “If it should ever strike you that I am getting a little overconfident in my powers, or giving less pains to a case than it deserves, kindly whisper ‘Norbury’ in my ear.” Norbury was the site of the case.

Blackmailer Charles Milverton owns a cat. The cat takes notice of Holmes’ and Watson’s break-in at Milverton’s study.

The other canonical cat, though, marks a triumph. In “His Last Bow,” Martha, Von Bork’s housekeeper and sole remaining English servant, has a black cat. The speculation is that Martha is actually Mrs. Hudson, undercover, as part of Holmes’ effort to keep track of Von Bork’s spy activities.

But as we move into the world of speculation and pastiches, there are other Holmesian cats.

There are at least two radio plays linking Holmes to felines. In “The Terrifying Cats,” an Italian opera singer is driven into madness by her twin. Gina Valcasi is driven to her death in Rome by being locked in a room with cats. There is such a thing, a fear of cats, called Ailurophobia. I had never heard of it, but it is twice as likely to occur in women, than men.

The episode was written by Dennis Green and Anthony Boucher and aired Feb. 25, 1946, sponsored by Petri Wine. In this particular episode, the familiar Basil Rathbone was Homes, but Eric Snowden sat in for an ill Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson.

Later that same year, on Oct. 26, 1946, Holmes and Watson, with Tom Conway as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson, solved, “The Clue of the Hungry Cat.” Kreml Hair Tonic was the sponsor. Holmes frees a wrongly convicted man by getting the real murderer to confess.

The key clue was a hungry cat, scratching at the back door for his supper. That proved that the victim was already dead.

Moving to the modern era, there is also “The Case of the Doggone Cats.” This pastiche was solved by Shirley Holmes. Shirley is the great-grandniece of Sherlock. This was a successful children’s show that ran for four seasons and was broadcast in 80 countries.

In this case, Shirley saves Barf, the dog, wrongly suspected in the disappearance of several neighborhood cats.

But the best pastiche here is Patricia Srigley’s “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Cat.” Srigley, who is a Canadian schoolteacher, has written two volumes, with a third volume promised.

Basically, Holmes rescues a black cat, who was about to be swatted by a fishmonger’s wife. Sherlock and the cat take to each other immediately. After toying with some names, Holmes settles on “Cat Watson,” a decision that makes the human Watson jealous. An envious, but bumbling Watson is one of the main themes here.

Another theme throughout is that cats are superior to dogs. Watson has a huge, farting drooling Gladstone the hound. While cats have dignity, Gladstone begs, rolls over and seeks attention.

Cat Watson understands language and acts promptly in both volumes to help Sherlock. He’s a cat with the powers of deduction and while he doesn’t have thumbs, he is attuned to using cat-skills with teeth and claws to assist Sherlock.

The first volume has a number of mysteries, some quite trivial, such as a missing bicycle or missing hound. But there are also cases of murder and blackmail.

Srigley has interesting takes on the canon. Wiggins makes an appearance, as does Mycroft. There is an interesting explanation of Mrs. Turner, the housekeeper who appears once and fades away. The personalities of both Mrs. Hudson and Mrs. Watson (Mary Morstan) are fleshed out. Both are hot-hot-hot.

The second volume is basically one long case that heavily involves Mycroft. The ending is action-packed and certainly original. I recommend both books, particularly if you are a cat lover.

In a non-canonical, but related dog and cat story, I bring your attention to “Detective LaRue: Letters from the Invesitgation” where a dog detective, falsely accused in the case, finds two missing cats. It is a delightful children’s story.  

Dogs in the Canon by Phil Angelo - Presented January 2025

“A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.”

Sherlock Holmes gives that assessment of dog-owner relations in “The Creeping Man,” one of the stories in “The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.”

The dog, Roy, played a key role in the case. Holmes reasoned that if the dog, a Wolfhound, was suspicious of his master, well, something must be wrong. If the dog was suspicious, so was Sherlock. In the story, too, Holmes rattles on that he was considering writing a monograph of the usefulness of dogs in detecting crime. Well, dogs do certainly that, by sniffing around and by ratting out their masters in the canon.

But the summary at the top is one of the few instances where Holmes and, thus, Doyle, got things completely and utterly wrong. There are folks who are pretty lousy humans, but utterly devoted to dogs. There are also good people who are pretty lousy dog owners.

An example. Joe Biden has a reputation as a considerate and thoughtful individual. His White House dog was a disaster. Biden’s official dog, Commander, administered 25 different bites. An equal opportunity biter, Commander wounded Secret Service agents not only in the White House, but also in Delaware, Maryland and Massachusetts. Commander was eventually re-homed.

Biden is not the only president with questionable pet activities. Lyndon Johnson got in a world of trouble by lifting his dogs up by the ears.

In case you are wondering about the history of presidential dogs, well, presidential pets have not always been dogs. Lincoln had two goats and a pig. Calvin Coolidge had a donkey named Ebeneezer. Teddy Roosevelt had more than two dozen animals in the White House including an owl, a lion and a rooster.

Back to England. The number of dogs in the canon is in keeping with the Victorian upper-class lifestyle. Queen Victoria herself was a noted dog-lover. She had, over her long lifetime at least 10 dogs. The total included: Fatima, a pug; Dash, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel; Hector, a deerhound;  and collies, Noble and Sharp.

There were also two greyhounds, Nero; and Eos. Eos had been brought over from Germany by Prince Albert. There were two Skye Terriers: Dandie; and Islay, who lost a fatal fight with a cat. Her two Pomeranians were Marco; and Turi, who rested with her on her deathbed.

But her best known dog was Looty. Looty was a Pekingese in the Imperial Chinese Court. Looty was brought back to England, a war trophy after the British won the Second Opium War. Looty’s Chinese owner had committed suicide rather than face the disgrace of losing the war to the English.

So it is no surprise that there is a dog right at the start of the canon, when Holmes and Watson are sizing each other up in “A Study in Scarlet,” Watson says he “keeps a bullpup.” Now the dog never appears again in any of the succeeding novels or short stories. There seem to be two explanations. Bullpup has two possible explanations in slang. One is a firearm. The other is to have a quick temper. I frankly don’t believe either of those possibilities. Make up your own mind.

The same story sees Holmes euthanize a dog. Sherlock has recovered two pills and he thinks these poison pills are one of the keys to the case. He tests his theory on an ailing terrier. The first pill does nothing, which surprised Holmes. He then reasons that one pill was inert while the other must be fatal. That’s the merciful end of the dog.

A dog also was critical in Sherlock’s first chronological case. In “The Adventure of the Gloria Scott,” Holmes was bitten by a Bull Terrier. The master was laid up for 10 days. Victor Trevor kept checking up on Sherlock, creating a rare friendship for Holmes and ultimately leading to that initial case. Does the entire canon hinge, then, on one dogbite?

Most pooches in the canon seem to serve one of four purposes. There are bloodhounds, or dogs following a scent on the trail. There are abused animals. There are guard dogs, some of them quite vicious. Then, there are dogs who serve a plot device, by observing or not observing. How often did Sherlock admonish Watson — you see but you do not observe. Well, the pooches certainly do observe.

Dogs that are clues

This designation certainly would be appropriate for Roy, the dog we described at the beginning of this essay.

Then there is the absolutely clever passage in “Silver Blaze” from “The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.”

Inspector Gregory of Scotland Yard asks: “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?” 

Holmes responds, “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”

“The dog did nothing in the night-time.”

“That was the curious incident.”

What this means, of course, is that the suspect who made off with Silver Blaze must have been someone who was familiar to the dog.

The same type of incident takes place, in reverse, in “The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place.” Lady Beatrice Falder raises her beloved Shoscombe Spaniels. Holmes steers one toward a woman who is disguised as Beatrice. The dog first expresses happiness and affection, but as he nears the imposter, he growls and snaps.

This confirms to Holmes that an actress is playing Lady Beatrice. “Dogs don’t make mistakes,” Holmes explains.

There is also a dog clue in “The Lion’s Mane.” Holmes develops an interest in the case when he hears that McPherson’s dog, an Airedale Terrier, has died “of grief for its master.” That the dog should die was after the beautiful, faithful nature of dogs,” Holmes explains.

But the death on the beach was suspicious. Why should a beach be fatal? Holmes reasoned. It turned out the dog had been killed in the same way its master had met his fate.

There are two Carlos in the canon. One yields an important clue in “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire. This Carlo has its tail on the ground and has trouble walking. The mistaken veterinary diagnosis was spinal meningitis, but his real problem was the curare that Jack Ferguson tried out on him.

Animal abuse

Sir Eustace Brackenstall comes across as evil in “The Adventure of the Abbey Grange” because he had one drenched his wife’s dog in petroleum and set it afire.

In “The Adventure of The Lion’s Mane, Ian Murdoch picks up a little dog belonging to McPherson and hurls it through a plate glass window.

Draghounds on the trail

“I would rather have Toby’s help than that of the whole detective force of London,” says Holmes in “The Sign of Four.”

Holmes dispatches Watson to fetch the sleuth-hound from Old Sherman of Lambeth. Sherman is not amused at first and threatens to drop a “wiper,” on top of Watson’s head. Watson eventually corrals the dog, who leads a merry chase. Toby is thrown off the scent when a passing cart picks up some creosote. Toby winds up perched atop a barrel of creosote.

Off on the smell again, Toby eventually winds up at the waterfront. So Toby did not find the culprits, but he did advance the case.

That is also the case with Pompey in “The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter.” Pompey is a squat, lop-eared white-and-tan dog, a supposed mix between a beagle and a foxhound. Pompey is put on the trail of the carriage of Dr. Leslie Armstrong.

Holmes had squirted the wheel of the brougham with aniseed. Pompey succeeded and would have followed the trail to the end of Scotland, according to the canon.

Guard dogs

There is another Carlo in “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches.”  This Carlo is a mastiff confined by Toller. The dog was kept hungry. The villain Rucastle attempts to sic the dog on others, but the dog turns on Rucastle, mauling him. Watson has to shoot it.

The Cunninghams in “The Reigate Puzzle” keep a dog. It might have helped guard the property, but it was chained up and serves little purpose in the case.

Charles Augustus Milverton has a brute of a guard dog, but a housemaid keeps it locked up to give Holmes free run of the property.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Adrian Conan Doyle once wrote that the most dramatic words ever penned by his father were, “I am Birdy Edwards,” when the undercover agent reveals himself to the Scowrers.

But this passage is surely in contention for that honor.

“… one false statement was made by Barrrymore at the inquest. He said there were no traces upon the ground around the body. He did not observe any. But I did — some distance off, but fresh and clear.”

“Footprints.”

‘Footprints.’

‘A man’s or a woman’s?’

Dr. Mortimer looked strangely at us for an instant, and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered:

‘Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!’

The entire case, though, begins with a different dog. Dr. James Mortimer has left his walking stick behind at 221b. Holmes and Watson ponder the stick and come up with a series of deductions. This is similar to passages about  Watson’s brother’s watch or Henry Baker’s hat.

Chew marks on the stick lead to the obvious conclusion that Mortimer has a dog. Larger than a terrier, smaller than a mastiff, it turns out to be a curly-haired spaniel.

But the dog we are all waiting for is the hound. It shows up when Mortimer reads the manuscript detailing the curse of the Baskervilles. The hound that stands over the fatal body of Sir Hugo Baskerville is “a foul thing, a great, lack beast, shaped like a hound, yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon.” It is said to have blazing eyes and dripping jaws.

The story of the hound appears to have been aided by tales told by Doyle’s friend Bertram Fletcher Robinson and by the legend of Black Shuck, an English ghost story by on a wandering apparition of a dog.

Fast forward to the scene of the Victorian mystery and we have a dog corralled by Stapleton and used for murder. The dog frightens one Baskerville to death, slays the convict Selden and narrowly misses killing another. To make the dog appear even more evil, Stapleton paints it with phosphorus.

The legend of the dog, at times, is scary too. Is it the booming of a bittern or the wail of the hound? The atmosphere adds to the terror. The dog is slain by gunshot as the tale ends.

There you have it: smart dogs; guard dogs; dogs that are victims and dogs that are an arm of the law. These are the dogs of Sherlock Holmes.

So thoroughly are dogs woven into the canon, that Watson even describes Holmes as a canine himself. Here is a passage from “A Study in Scarlet.” This defines Holmes early in the series.

Watson writes: “As I watched him, I was irresistibly reminded of a pure-blooded, well-trained foxhound, as it dashes backward and forward through to covert, whining in its eagerness, until it comes across the lost scent.”

And as Holmes says himself, “Dogs don’t make mistakes.”

        Summarizing the Murder Cases of Sherlock Holmes

                by Phil Angelo - January 2024

Cases where the murder victims deserved to be killed anyway

Study in Scarlet (Drebber and Stangerson)

Victor Trevor or James Armitage in The Gloria Scott, a mutineer

Butler Brunton, a would-be thief.

Charles Augustus Milverton, the blackmailer

Wife-beater Sir Eustace Brackenstall in Abbey Grange.

Mortimer Tregennis, a killer himself, in The Devil’s Foot

Wife beater Ronder in The Veiled Lodger

Cases where the murderer or murderers, victims or attempted murderers die an alternative death (rather than on the gallows)

Study in Scarlet (Jefferson Hope)

Boscombe Valley (John Turner)

Five Orange Pips, when the Lone Star sinks

Murder cases where Holmes’ client gets killed

The Five Orange Pips

The Dancing Men

They met their end in drownings, or learn how to swim

The elder Neligan in Black Peter

The criminals in The Resident Patient (Norah Creina) and The Five Orange Pips (The Lone Star)

Stapleton in the bog in The Hound.

Jack Douglas in The Valley of Fear off the Palmyra.

Cases where Holmes lets the murderer go

Boscombe Valley (John Turner)

The woman who killed Milverton.

Jack Croker in the Abbey Grange

Leon Sterndale in The Devils Foot

Eugenia Ronder in The Veiled Lodger

Cases where Holmes clears a man accused of murder. 

Boscombe Valley (James McCarthy)

The Norwood Builder (John Hector McFarlane)

John Hopley Neligan, Black Peter

Scott Eccles, Wisteria Lodge

Grace Dunbar, Thor Bridge

Ian Murdoch in The Lion’s Mane

Gun control would not have solved much in the canon, ponder these murder weapons.

Blowdarts, Sign of Four

Rock, Boscombe Valley

Snake, Speckled Band

John Straker, horseshoe, Silver Blaze

An oar, by Jim Browner, in The Cardboard Box 

The rope, used to hang Blessington in The Resident Patient.

An airgun is a gun, although an unusual one. Col. Moran uses it in The Empty House.

Harpoon, Peter Carey in Black Peter.

Beppo slays Pietro Venucci with a knife in The Six Napoleons

Gennaro Luccas kills Black Gorgiano with a knife in Red Circle.

Willoughby Smith, killed with a small sealing wax knife in The Golden Pince Nez.

A poker in The Abbey Grange. Jack Croker wielded it. Sir Eustace Brackenstall was the victim.

Cadogan West was done in by a life-preserver in The Bruce Partington Plans.

A poisoned little box is used by Culverton Smith to do away with his nephew Victor Savage.

The Devil’s Foot used by Mortimer Tregennis and Leon Sterndale.

Ctanea Capillata jellyfish in the Lion’s Mane. 

Sahara King is the fatal weapon in The Veiled Lodger 

Gas by Josiah Amberley in The Retired Colourman 

A murderer who got away with it

Rachel Howells

Fatal Shootings in the canon

William the coachman in The Reigate Squires

Ronald Adair in The Empty House

Hilton Cubitt in The Dancing Men

Charles Augustus Milverton in the case named after him.

Killer Evans shoots counterfeiter Rodger Prescott in the backstory of the Three Garridebs.

People who die of heart attacks or some stroke

The husband of the killer of Milverton

Jefferson Hope

Col. Barclay

Victor Trevor – actually Victor’s father

Sir Charles Baskerville

Douglas Maberley in The Three Gables. 

They die on the gallows

Blessington in The Resident Patient – actually in his bedroom

Black Jack McGinty and eight other Scowrers.

The attempted murder of Sherlock Holmes

The Dying Detective 

The Illustrious Client 

The Empty House, air gun

Suicides or threat of suicides

Anna in The Golden Pince Nez. 

Maria Gibson in Thor Bridge 

Suicide is contemplated by Eugenia Ronder in The Veiled Lodger

Josiah Amberley tries to commit suicide as he is caught by Holmes in The Retired Colourman.