"ON 26 July 1926, Vita Sackville-West gave the Woolfs a cocker spaniel puppy which they named Pinka (or Pinker). She ate holes in Virginia's skirt and devoured Leonard's proofs. "But", writes Virginia, "she is an angel of light. Leonard says seriously she makes him believe in God . . . and this after she has wetted his floor 8 times in one day". For nine years Pinka was the much loved companion of both Leonard and Virginia, though in time she became essentially Leonard's dog. Loved as she was, the pattern of her life naturally became woven into the pattern of theirs. The daily habits; her walk with Leonard round Tavistock Square garden in the morning before the day's work began. Her joke of extinguishing, with her paw, Virginia's match when she lit a cigarette, and so on. Virginia mentions her again and again in letters and diaries."