animal
Snapper
also: Откатай, Otkatai
Chubukov's young, thick-coated hunting dog, bought for 85 rubles and said to be the son of Harness and Chisel; defended by Natalya Stepanovna as far superior to Lomov's Guesser, the dispute over the two dogs' relative merits is the second of the two quarrels that derail the marriage proposal in "The Proposal" (1888).
Reading notes
- The Proposal §202 he's undershot, and an undershot dog is never a good hunter
"Подуздоват" (undershot, i.e. having a lower jaw that protrudes past or is markedly shorter than the upper jaw) is a real conformation fault cited in period hunting-dog judging; Lomov's claim is presented by Chekhov as technically plausible dog-fancier jargon, which is precisely what makes the ensuing shouting match over an unverifiable physical detail so absurd.