One day Bacallao was hunting with his dog named Baltazar. It was an excellent dog, it “smelled a beast ten leagues away,” as the owner himself said.
And so the deer they were chasing climbed into the very thicket of the forest, into the thickets of acacias and blackberries. Bacallao realized that there was no way to catch him there. Baltazar ran from behind, and the owner, in order to stop him, dismounted and stuck the machete into the ground with the blade towards the dog. And she rushed as fast as she could.
The poor thing did not know what danger she was in danger of. She attacked with all her might with the machete, and instantly her torso was cut in half...
Bacallao was terribly upset - he loved the dog very much. Without wasting time, he jumped off his horse, picked up both halves of the body from the ground and quickly put them together - after all, the blood had not yet cooled down - what if they grew together and the dog came to life...
And in fact, either a miracle happened, or this scoundrel Bacallao was in agreement with the devil himself - but the dog came to life and, as if nothing had happened, ran on. Only now she was even more comfortable: when she got tired of running on two legs, she would turn over and run on the other two. Ba-callao, in his haste, put the halves together incorrectly - two paws were at the bottom, and the other two were sticking up...
And they say that Baltazar still runs like this, unless he died of rabies, scab or some other disease. True, the peasants claim that Bacallao gave him some kind of potion and the dog became immortal. This is not surprising - after all, Bacallao, after his horse, loved him more than anyone in the world.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru