Bush's Grievance by E.V. Lucas (15)
A dog narrates its own contentment and its single complaint. It reports being well cared for by "Them" — good health, good appetite, fresh bread and toast, and occasional bones scavenged with a boy who walks it through the rabbit fields to the village, plus scraps from a nearby house's careless servants. It dismisses the household's own watery dinner-starter dog food by comparison. The narrator notes the humans occasionally spank it but shrugs this off as harmless, since "He" barely knows how to do it and "She" is ineffectual when He's away. Its true grievance, shared it says by other dogs, especially spaniels, is a lawn game the household plays in summer instead of taking walks, using four colored balls — blue, red, black, and yellow — and hoops, striking the balls back and forth for what feels like forever. The dog cannot understand the game's appeal and tries to sabotage it by lying in front of the players or blocking the balls, only to be shouted at or prodded with a mallet for its trouble. It also mentions, as a lesser irritation it can tolerate, that the household got a dog for the youngest child, of a breed it does not care for. But the croquet-like game remains its overriding source of resentment.
By E.V. Lucas · First published 15 · Genre: Satire, Humorous Fiction, Anthropomorphic Animal Fiction · 553 words
First lines
Without Souls
What this Textopian page supports
Bush's Grievance is listed on Textopian as a short story by E.V. Lucas, dated 15 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Short story
- Author: E.V. Lucas
- Date: 15 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Satire, Humorous Fiction, Anthropomorphic Animal Fiction, Short Story, Domestic Fiction
- Length: 553 words
- Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Bush's Grievance by E.V. Lucas
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Genres
- Satire — The narrative critiques human priorities and social behavior through the dog's perspective, mocking the owners' obsession with croquet over animal care and companionship.
- Humorous Fiction — The piece employs wit, irony, and comedic observations throughout, particularly in the dog's complaints about human behavior and the gap between animal and human perspectives.
- Anthropomorphic Animal Fiction — The core narrative device is a dog narrating in first person with human consciousness and language, a defining feature of the work.
- Short Story — The work is a brief, self-contained narrative focused on a single conflict and character revelation, fitting the short story form precisely.
Tags
dogs · pets · croquet · family life · domestic life · English countryside · summer · animal narration · first-person narration · humor · satirical · ironic