‘This isn’t the one I want! This one is the smallest – the runt of the litter! We need the bravest and best – the champion!’ Jim stopped smiling and frowned at Fitz. ‘Don’t look at his size! It’s what’s in here that counts! And here!’ said Jim, pointing to his head and then his heart. ‘Just look at him!’ It’s the 1870s in South Africa and ‘gold’ is the buzzword. From all over, hopeful diggers are streaming to this beautiful yet hard land, where fortunes can be made and lost and where opportunities lie around every corner ... but where dangers, criminals and crooks also abound! It is here that Jock has to face trouble – man trouble – and learn that it takes the heart of a champion to be a true and loyal friend, no matter what dangers you’re facing.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Jock of the Bushveld" by Percy Fitzpatrick. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Jock Of The Bushveld is a true story by South African author Sir James Percy FitzPatrick.[1] The book tells of FitzPatrick's travels with his dog, Jock, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross, during the 1880s, when he worked as a storeman, prospector's assistant, journalist and ox-wagon transport-rider in the Bushveld region of the Transvaal (then the South African Republic). Jock’s mother, Jess, was the only dog in their camp. FitzPatrick describes her as “an unattractive bull-terrier with a dull brindled coat–black and grey in shadowy stripes. She had small cross-looking eyes and uncertain always-moving ears; she was bad tempered and most unsociable", but everybody respected her. Jock’s father is only described as an imported dog in the book and there’s an ongoing debate on whether he was an American Staffordshire Terrier or of a breed like the Bull and Terrier. What followed were a string of amazing adventures across South Africa's highveld from the Lydenburg Goldfields to Delagoa Bay (Maputo) in which Jock had many adventures earned a reputation second to none. Jock permanently lost his hearing in one of these adventures when a kudu antelope cow kicked him. The main version of how Jock died is told as follows: When Fitzpatrick went to live in Barberton, he realised Jock was miserable living in a town and gave the dog to his friend Tom Barnett, who ran a supply store in what has since become Mozambique. NOTE. This was the route (Pretoria to Delagoa Bay) which Winston Churchill used to escape from the Boers in 1900. One night when Tom Barnett called him, he mistakenly shot Jock, because he was thought to be the dog killing chickens on his farm. He later discovered that Jock had meanwhile already killed the other intruding dog and was simply responding to his call. NOTE: The exact location of Jock´s grave is unfortunately not officially marked or known. However, in 1947 Fitzpatrick´s daughter Cecily Niven, backtracked her father´s travels according to the descriptions in "Jock of the Bushveld" and wrote about her findings in her book "Jock & Fitz" published 1968. ============== Sir James Percy FitzPatrick, KCMG, known as Percy FitzPatrick, was a South African author, politician, mining financier and pioneer of the fruit industry. He authored the classic children's book, Jock Of The Bushveld. As a politician, he defended British Imperial interests before and during the Anglo-Boer War.