The following is my translation of an article called: Hund und Iltis von Max Lindow, Brenzlau. It appeared in a German popular science magazine, Kosmos Handweiser für Naturfreunde 1913, Heft 6, Seiten 239-240.
I'm not aware of any previous translation.
Trevor Dykes.

Dog and polecat by Max Lindow, Brenzlau
It was stated, in the article about the skunk in the 10th edition of the previous year, that the skunk can so effect dogs by squirting an oily, yellow, very sharp liquid at them, that they fall to the ground as if suddenly shot by a bullet. This information, and especially the illustration of a dog hit by a skunk, strongly reminded me of an experience from my bird hunts of the year before, and I would like to explain this with the following.

It was in the year of 1911 when, with my Treff, a very strong dog, I encountered a polecat in a turnip field. When caught, this bit the dog so badly that Treff unsuccessfully attempted to hurl it away, with pitiful noises, by quickly turning round in circles. I could not help my loyal friend as this unusual carousel was going far too fast. Quite how the good Treff managed to free himself from his tormentor is not clear to me. My dog had already had similarly bad experiences with a biting and aggressive hamster. It is no wonder that, over time, he developed a kind of 'respect for heroes'. He no longer dares to attack hamsters that have adopted defensive postures, and uses the following trick. He beats the ground with his powerful paws and jumps past the enemy, thus causing it to flee. Then he grabs is as quick as lightning, and throws it up into the air. He has now done this so often that he grabs the hamster in just the right place; after this, they can be dealt with quickly.-

I was searching with Treff for birds in a turnip field in 1912. He suddenly grew wild and excited directly behind a shed. I looked for the cause, saw a polecat, and opened fire immediately. In the next moment, the dog had grabbed it and crushed the spine, so that the bones cracked. He bashed it around for a whole minute, and then wanted to throw it far. However, the tough polecat was not dead and, just as I was going for the small predator with my hunting stick, my Treff suddenly sank to the ground. He lay on his right side, attempted to raise his head without success, and the rear legs appeared entirely stiff and lame and pointed upwards. His eyes looked at me with such deathly worry, that I had the greatest sympathy for the animal. After failing with a number of attempts to get up, Treff simply lay stretched out -dying in my opinion. The mouth was wide open, saliva streamed out, and the breast moved up and down rapidly. I believed the polecat must have injured the dog, and that had brought on a heart attack, as I had already experienced something similar with another dog. Eventually, I decided to go to the adjacent farmhouse to fetch help from the owner. After a short while Treff followed me. He had raised himself with difficulty, and his head was drastically hanging. The rear legs were still very stiff, and he could not bend them. By the time we reached the house, I was feeling easier about the dog. The women came out and looked for themselves at the polecat, which was extraordinarily strong. I explained what had taken place with the dog and pointed to him, the poor sinner standing at a distance of 30 paces. The sympathetic women tried to attract him with all pet names, and Treffchen slowly came nearer and allowed himself to be patted and stroked. But then he saw the polecat! He suddenly looked very ill at ease, took a few stiff steps and had the same attack as previously. Naturally, the women broke out in tears, fetched milk and water. But Treff's looks appeared to say: "None of you can help me, let me die." We pushed and carried him into a more comfortable position, and spread blankets over him; he had a heavy attack of shivering. With severe worries, I left my loyal companion but, when I came over the last hill on the next day, he was sitting in the garden and looking expectantly at the spot where I must appear; then the loyal fellow knew and expected my appearance at a particular hours, so as to go out on a happy hunt. One explained to me that Treff had been lively after a few hours, and happily appeared at his food bowl.

What must have happened here is a poisoning from the content of the glands of the polecat. I would very much like to know whether only a strong effect worked on just the scent nerves, or whether poison had also found its way into the stomach.

Translator's note
To the best of my knowledge, polecats produce no venom whatsoever, despite what the dog seemed to think. However, I'm not planning to add them to my diet.

An index of more of my translations of old Kosmos articles can be found at:

Kosmos Translations Archive

A number of Mesozoic (and post-Mesozoic) location summaries can be found at Localities.