Agatha Christie fans may be well acquainted with the detectives, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. Their last appearance was also the last novel Christie wrote, Postern of Fate, and it provided a heroic role for “Hannibal,” their Manchester Terrier. His looks in the story were described as thus: “…Hannibal was a small black dog, very glossy with interesting tan patched on his behind and each side of his cheeks. He was a Manchester Terrier of very pure pedigree and he considered himself to be on a much higher level of sophistication and aristocracy than any other dog he met.”

Sounds about right. That said, Agatha Christie actually owned two Manchester Terriers during her lifetime: “Treacle,” her first dog, and “Bingo,” who was the actual model for “Hannibal.”