The theme goes back to the beginning of Western literature, the Odyssey:
Odysseus, finally returned home after twenty years, discovers Argus, the dog he’d trained as a puppy, ancient and flea-ridden and lying on a heap of manure (yes, okay, Homer was laying it on a little thick here, but the detail sure does stick). The broken dog is too weak to stand up, but his ears perk up at the sound of his long-absent master, and he wags his tail and drops his ears. Odysseus, in disguise, pretends not to recognize Argus, but sheds hidden tears at this display of affection from his old dog. Argus, apparently having fulfilled his sustaining desire to see his beloved master one last time, is then seized by “the dark finality of death.”
Homer must have had a dog.
(Image by Flickr user Jeffrey K. Edwards)
The Dish 