The Dog Handler's Tale

"The Dog Handler's Tale" is a bittersweet Cthulhu Mythos short story by Canadian author Donald Tyson. It was published in the S. T. Joshi-edited anthology The Madness of Cthulhu: Volume 1 by Titan Books in October 2014.
==Synopsis==
"The Dog Handler's Tale" is told as the written account of one of the work team on the ill-fated Pabodie Expedition to the Antarctic, one Jack Hobbs, a Miskatonic University handyman who managed to secure himself a position on the team as senior dog handler.
Hobbs recounts from a different perspective the events of the trip from its setting sail, through the establishing of the initial base camps, the butting heads of Professors Dyer and Lake, to Lake's uncovering of the subterranean resting place of the sleeping Elder Things, and eventually the massacre of the entire party. Grievously injured, he and his favourite dog Sergeant found themselves trapped inside the cave with no food and water; Hobbs' final entry in the account tells of his wish that nobody blame Sergeant for what he was sure the starving dog would soon do, and the hope that it would somehow find its way out and be rescued by the survivors.
The story concludes with a postscript by Professor Starkweather, leader of a 1935 venture following in the footsteps of the Pabodie Expedition, which states that the Hobbs' body was found untouched, the emaciated corpse of his faithful dog Sergeant draped across his legs.
Category:Donald Tyson works
Category:Expanded Mythos Works