"Me and darling Pinkie". Wrote Mrs Patrick Campbell (1865-1940)- the greatest British actress of her generation and original Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw´s Pygmalion- on this photograph of her little monkey griffon. A German "lady´s dog", she was presented to the actress by King of the Belgians. The breed was the height of fashion and, as was only fitting for such a grand little thing, she dined off the best china and slept in the bosom of her mistress. The pair were inseparable and quarantine laws were regularly broken. When Pinkie was old and fragile, Mrs Campbell tried smuggling her back to England after an American tour, buying a Mexican parakeet to accompany them in the cabin; when Pinkie barked, she could tell them it was the clever mimicking bird. Unfortunately the secret was discovered, but Mrs Campbell, pleading that her old dog was blind and almost toothless, was let off with a fine of only thirty shillings (150 pounds), and was allowed to keep Pinkie. Her other dogs included a Japanese Chin, and a Pekingese called Moonbeam.

Taken from: "Women & Dogs. UK, 1931