Pet The Dog / Literature

Pet the Dog in Literature.

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• 1632 has one for Cardinal Richelieu. He receives a Siamese kitten as a diplomatic gift from an ambassador, marvels at how pretty it is and plays with it a little. Then he calls for a servant and very politely asks if the servant would be so kind as to make sure the little kitty is fed and given a warm place to sleep, if it wouldn't be too much trouble. He then goes right back to playing cutthroat politician with the ambassador.
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Captain Nemo has several of these moments, the greatest one being when Arronnax finds him sobbing over a picture of his family.
• Akatsuki Hiden: Evil Flowers in Full Bloom: Deidara and Sasori blow up Ceramic Village, presumably taking everyone with it. However, they give Hanyu a headstart to leave before they initiate the explosion.
• Archvillain: In addition to saving kittens from trees, stopping forest fires and helping little old ladies cross the street, Mighty Mike literally pets a dog on live TV. Kyle, naturally, criticizes his dog-petting technique.
• There's a huge Pet the Dog moment in Antonia Forest's Autumn Term involving Lois Sanger, the Marlow twins' arch nemesis, who gets them both kicked out of Guides earlier in the book, and makes trouble for Nicola Marlow later on in the series. Their form opt to put on a production of The Prince and the Pauper for the school festival, and Tim Keith, who writes the play, wants to narrate. However, Tim is terrible and Lawrie Marlow panics about the play being a failure. Tim remembers hearing that Lois is a good reader, and when she shows her the script, Lois is impressed with it and offers to do the narration herself, effectively saving the play.
• Bazil Broketail: Not only did General Kreegsbrok overthrow the previous, cruel rulers of Kraheen, but after overtaking the country, he issued many reforms in order to improve the lives of ordinary citizens (for example, he gave away much of the land previously owned by noblemen to peasants). This made him very popular among the common people, who readily wiped out any remaining representatives of the old order without any prompting on Kreegsbrok's part. Of course, this is exactly what the general aimed at. He also holds a perfectly normal (if not exactly friendly) conversation with Relkin when meeting him face to face, despite the fact that he is a high-ranking officer while his interlocutor is a lowly dragonboy.
• Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke includes a sort of intentional and public Pet the Dog, when the Overlords issue a decree that all nations of the world must have strict laws to prevent animal cruelty. It's unclear whether the Overlords really are that nice and well-intentioned, or if they just want everyone to think they are.
  • Unclear nothing: what they do with that empathy ray at the bullring is a Take That!.
• Edmund Pevensie from The Chronicles of Narnia is a complete Jerk with a Heart of Jerk and bully to his younger sister, Lucy, in the first book. He is the only one who supports and believes in her in the second one and, by the third part, his primary concern is to take care of her and keep her safe. So they're practically the two characters whose relationship has evolved the most.
• "Clockpunk and the Vitalizer" has The Vitalizer feed Clockpunk donuts when she's hungry and (albeit grudgingly) get up to wipe her face, along with making a couple of concessions to make her more comfortable while she's his captive. He probably didn't expect her to repay his courtesy with an attack.
• Codex Alera
  • Fidelias (who is a ruthless, though not pointlessly cruel, traitor to the crown and currently working with its enemies to launch a coup,) save the lives of several Crown soldiers despite putting himself at some risk to do so. Afterwards, he asks himself why he did it, and consciously decides to settle for "it had pleased him", thinking that analysing his motives further than that might be a bad idea. Given that he works to bring down the Crown because he genuinely believes the Realm needs a new leader, and that he transfers his loyalties again when it becomes clear that the good guys do have a leader strong enough to hold the Realm together, the answer is actually obvious (to the reader, if not to Fidelias himself): he is an essentially decent man.
  • When the Awakened Vord Queen is in a position to completely exterminate humanity, she sets aside areas where they can live freely, safely and under their own government, the only condition being they let her sterilise them. Considering her Vord instincts are continuously screaming at her to immediately wipe out every non-Vord, the fact that she's willing to slowly establish Vord dominance by preventing new human life rather than immediately causing death and suffering to those who are already alive says a lot about her. Note that while this does indeed weaken the resistance against her she has the numbers to crush them completely if she wanted to, and this offer is not a trick; she fully keeps her word to them to the point that even after she's killed, the Vord she assigned to protect the surrendered humans continue to do so, even from other Vord.
• Although Chichikov, the main character of Dead Souls, is a cheapskate, the author informs us that he'll always give a copper to a beggar.
• It's easy to spot the hero of Deerskin as heroic. Not because he's a prince of the blood (he is, but he didn't ask to be born one), not because he's tall and blond and heroically built (he's none of those), not because he gallops into battle on his mighty charger (he doesn't)... but because he sits up at night with orphaned puppies.
• Subverted in The Dinosaur Lords, when Falk and Bergdahl discuss how to get to the Emperor. When Bergdahl suggests using Emperor's daughter, Falk vehemently protests, stating that he won't involve a ten-year-older into such thing. A moment later, however, he adds that this is because if they were found out, the Emperor would have their heads on a plate, as contrasted to his typical resigned acceptance of Decadent Court he lives in.
• Discworld:
  • Lord Vetinari has several Pet the Dog moments — most related to his ancient terrier Wuffles, and more recently, Mr. Fusspot. It's said that once a week, Vetinari goes to the grave of the late Wuffles and puts a dog biscuit on it. Yes, the tyrant of Ankh-Morpork, trained at the Assassin's Guild and who would kill people without a second thought if he thought it was in the interests of the city, still cares for his dear little dog.
  • Granny Weatherwax is a complicated woman
    • She acquires a kitten in Wintersmith, which she promptly names You (as in: "Stop that, You!"). She makes a show of not caring for it... but then cares for it when no-one's looking. By the end of the book You is found curled up on top of Granny Weatherwax's head, under her hat (Granny gives the lame excuse that it keeps her head warm).
    • In Maskerade, Agnes (or Perdita X, as she called herself for most of the book) was held in mild contempt by Granny for a large portion of the book. After Agnes has had all her hopes at being an opera singer crushed (despite being the real heroine), she reluctantly returns to Lancre. Granny, in a rare moment of genuine kindness, tells Agnes that as a young woman, she called herself "Endemonidia" (but not for very long), showing that even she started off as a bit vain and foolish.
    • Maybe subverted and maybe not when Granny saves Diamanda Tockley (who hates Granny and is responsible for allowing the elves to invade) from the realm of the elves. When she is shot and knocked out by a poisoned elf arrow, Granny picks her up, slings her over her shoulders, and flees while the elves shoot at her. When Nanny admits to being impressed that she did this, Granny just claims that she was using the girl as a human shield. Of course, she probably could have run a lot faster if she wasn't carrying someone else...
  • Greebo is one to Nanny Ogg. Despite the fact that Greebo is part homicidal, part sadistic and all wild fire explosions, he is still a cat except when he's a human. That does not stop Nanny Ogg from loving it.
  • DEATH usually an example of Creepy Good given his various attempts to understand humanity while always getting it slightly wrong, but he has an uncomplicated fondness for cats.
• The Divine Comedy:
  • The Limbo is this when compared to the whole Hell. The souls that belong to this circle didn't commit sin but neither were baptized, thus aren't free from the original sin and are still condemned to eternal punishment... which consists of staying in a somber, foggy place where they can move and talk freely and don't suffer any pain except from being unable to participate in the Eternal Love.
  • Dante feels quite sad about Paolo and Francesca (a couple in the circle of the Lustful) as well.
  • Count Ugolino, a traitor in the depth of Hell, actually becomes pitiable when he tells his tale about his sons. Even more poignant if you consider that Dante's personal tragedy relates closely to Ugolino's because he was exiled from Florence with his (innocent) sons, as Ugolino was imprisoned with his. The fact that his family was condemned for his political choices weighted heavily on Dante's shoulders for all his later life.
• Raistlin of the Dragonlance saga, a treacherous, twisted Villain Protagonist (albeit an ensemble one) driven by bitterness and insatiable ambition, has a kindly streak when it comes to the downtrodden and pitiful... as he knows firsthand what it feels like to be helpless and hated. This leads to many Pet the Dog moments, especially with Bupu the Gully Dwarf, who inadvertently becomes a kind of Morality Pet.
• The Dresden Files:
  • "Gentleman" Johnny Marcone is a mob boss who pretty much runs Chicago, and pretty much anything involving adults is fair play. However, harm a child on Marcone's turf, and he will kill you. Personally, slowly and messily. Harry often laments the fact that Marcone is just human enough that he can't be written off as just another scumbag.
  • Kincaid also clearly cares for the Archive, well beyond what is strictly necessary to do his job. When his Odd Friendship with Harry and... thing with Murphy are taken into account, he looks more and more like a Hitman with a Heart, but don't count on it.
  • Lea is genuinely very fond of Harry, stubborn and rebellious as he may be, but she has funny ways of showing it. Her most direct act of kindness is shown when after Susan Rodriguez, mother to Harry's child, sacrifices her life on an alter to destroy all of the Red Court who were seeking to kill Maggie, their daughter, as a means to kill Maggie's family, Lea swears to Harry she will take Susan's body and bury it in a place and way Harry would find respectful and proper.
    Harry: [thinking] A direct promise from one of the Sidhe is a rare thing. A kindness is even rarer. But maybe I shouldn't have been surprised: Even in winter, the cold isn't always bitter, and not every day is cruel.
  • Lea's queen and the inspiration for all the evil queens in fantasy, Queen Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness is not one a person should make an enemy of lightly. She has admitted to destroying a whole village because of a single person's defiance against her, and if her pride is wounded publicly then she will respond. That said, one must have a heart inside even if it is mostly frozen by Winter cold.
    • It is because of that heart her own mother calls her a "romantic" as Mab gives her traitorous daughter Maeve a chance to stop her treason rather than killing the young woman who is threatening all of reality. Mab cannot even kill Maeve herself and sets Harry to do it.
    • It is also revealed Mab celebrates Christmas and will give gifts and rewards to her loyal subjects who do well. When it comes to Winter Knight Harry Dresden, she gifts him a gift for his daughter: a simple looking ring which will gift the wearer all the powers Elsa has until noon and play Elsa's signature song.
• The Elenium: In The Sapphire Rose, Sparhawk arrives for the showdown with his former friend-turned-nemesis, Martel. As they prepare for a final fight to the death, Sparhawk reveals that his beloved squire, Kurik, was killed by one of Martel's lieutenants. Martel is stricken by the news and offers his sincere condolences, remarking that he'd always liked that person and is genuinely sorry to hear of their death.
• Western Fantasy Fiction has Drasek Riven from the Erevis Cale trilogy and The Twilight War. The second chosen of Mask, God of Thieves, Riven is a dark hearted angry man. The main character of these books, Erevis the first chosen of Mask, even remarks upon Riven's status as the better killer. Riven is a literal case of Petting the Dog, as the first sign of a good sign to him is when leaving a stakeout because he 'has other business to attend to'. Following Riven through the city we discover that he has two mongrel alley dogs he regularly feeds with scraps bought from a butcher. Before leaving the city, Riven even goes to the effort of paying (quite handsomely) a man to feed the dogs for the next year. Riven's case could have been done poorly, yet he never loses his status as a badass or suffers from Badass Decay; all of which is a testament to the author.
• The British Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks published in the 1980s and 1990s contain an interesting example in Lord Azzur, the tyrannical ruler of Port Blacksand, the otherwise hopelessly corrupt and vile City of Thieves. While Azzur was a notorious pirate and murderer before he seized control of Blacksand, he indulges some rather odd acts of charity, including providing a luxurious home for a woman abducted by the evil Snake Men of the Desert of Skulls and left with the head of a giant snake, and celebrating the New Year by executing several of Port Blacksand's wealthiest citizens and donating their riches to the poor.
  • Subverted in the Blacksand! sourcebook, when the entry for his first charity executions is immediately followed in the timeline by "Several of the now-rich citizens from last year's poor are killed in this year's charity executions." Fine sense of irony, that tyrant.
  • The reader can even use Azzur's care of the Serpent Queen (the lady with the snake head) to their advantage in City of Thieves (1983). If the player character enters the Serpent Queen's home, they can avoid a fairly difficult fight by presenting her with flowers and saying they are from Lord Azzur. She takes the gift with delight and gives the player a small tip.
• The First Law: Blood Knight Ferro about to kill The Igor Severard because he was trailing her. When Ferro asks him for a reason why she shouldn't, Severard reflects and says that he's worth killing, but the birds he usually feeds don't deserve it. Considering both characters affinity for violence and the general brutality of the setting, both Severard having a love of feeding birds and Ferro not killing him as a result is a rare Pet the Dog moment in the series.
• Captain Nicholl, the antagonist in From the Earth to the Moon, eventually challenges one of the protagonists, Mr. Barbicane, to a duel in the wilds of Florida. When two other protagonists try to stop the duel, how do they find Captain Nicholl? He has put his weapon aside, to save a small bird who has gotten stuck in a tarantula's net.
• Griffin's Daughter: Elven prince Ashinji is captured by human forces. The usual fates for such a captive would be either immediate execution or transfer to custody of the Empress' forces for "interrogation". The local regent, Thesselina, chooses to Take a Third Option and give Ashinji to local slavers who run a gladiator ring. There, at least, Ashinji would have a fighting chance to live.
• Harry Potter:
  • In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Fleur is much less of a bitch after we see how frantic she is when she fails to rescue her sister during the Second Task.
  • Also in The Goblet of Fire, subverted in the case of Mad-Eye Moody. After he seriously upsets Neville on his first day of class, he invites the kid for tea, talks to him about Herbology (the one class Neville is very good at), and loans him a book about magical plants of the Mediterranean. We later find out that "Moody" was secretly one of the people who tortured Neville's parents to insanity and only gave him the book as a way for Harry to figure out how to beat the Second Task, to get him one step closer to the plan to resurrect Voldemort.
  • In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, we see that Narcissa Malfoy might be a snobby pureblood supremacist like her husband, but she still is willing to risk Voldemort's wrath to find Snape (who, at this point, is morally suspicious to the good guys, the bad guys, and the readers in general) and beg him to protect her son from the suicide mission he's been given. Bellatrix, meanwhile, cements herself as a monster by dismissing Narcissa's fears and panic as her failing to realize what an honor her son was granted.
  • This is taken even further in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Narcissa is the one who checks Harry's body after Voldemort used the Killing Curse on him. Of course, she realizes he is alive, but she does not reveal this information to Voldemort. Instead, she asks him one question: "Is Draco alive?" At Harry's confirmation of her son's welfare, she turns to Voldemort and, with a completely straight face, lies through her teeth. This action leads almost directly to Voldemort's demise.
  • Filch's best known redeeming quality is his love for his cat, Mrs. Norris. Of course, most of the students hate her almost as much as they hate her owner. Filch is also more fond of the school than he's willing to admit. His status as a Squib would have barred him from attending classes, or even living at Hogwarts, if Dumbledore had not showed pity for him. Thus, Filch chooses to stay and fight at Hogwarts during the Last Battle even though he has no magic, and when the Battle is over, he resumes his duties as groundskeeper by quietly and respectfully tidying up the hallways so the wizards who died in battle have a proper resting place.
  • While Voldemort seems to actually care for his giant monster-snake Nagini, it is not known if it out of genuine empathy for another being or just because he put a piece of his soul into her. As Dumbledore puts it, "he is as fond of her as he can be of anything". Subverted, however, with Bellatrix: she's utterly devoted to him and he at times seems to care about her, but other times he makes it clear that he doesn't.
• The Hearts We Sold: The Daemon isn't evil, but he's cold, strict, and willing to put the lives of teenagers on the line. That said, he pays them very well, always keeps his word, and occasionally does something kind of nice, or shows the barest hint that he does care about his charges on some level.
• Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest: When Franklin pours his heart out to Nigel, Nigel acknowledges that as much as he dislikes him, he acknowledges how Franklin is more dedicated and earnest than most Orcs he knows. While most of his pick-me-up speech is just him railing on Franklin for being an irritant, Franklin still accentuates the positives.
  Peggy: That was a decent thing you did.
  Nigel: Hell, he's not all useless. Don't tell me the spirits approve.
  Peggy: The spirits think you should've killed him. But the spirits are assholes.
• The later books in the Honor Harrington series like to do this with the Mesans. One of them is a fan of Manticoran classical music, another one is a genuinely loving husband and father. The fact that they aren't monsters by the standard metric only makes what they do all the more chilling.
• In The Hunger Games, Thresh spares Katniss in return for her earlier kindness to Rue. He does warn that it's a one-time offer.
• Hurog: In Dragon Bones, about the only nice thing Ward's abusive father ever did was to employ Stala, a woman, as trainer for his guard. She is good, so this didn't affect him negatively; she is his wife's half-sister, so she's family; and he had an affair with her. It is unclear at which point in time the affair started, though.
• To distinguish James Bond from his enemies and show that he is morally better than them despite also being a killer, Ian Fleming gave him a great empathy for animals. In Thunderball, this even extends to a barracuda that tried to eat him; he's noticeably upset when he sees the fish has been mortally wounded by a depth charge detonated by the bad guys.
• Johannes Cabal the Necromancer: Johannes' life hinges on tricking 100 people into signing over their souls, but all the same, when he finds the ghost of a man who'd committed suicide after losing all his loved ones, Johannes decides against targeting the ghost and helps him Go into the Light instead.
• Discussed in the Knight and Rogue Series. The villain of the second book has taken pity on a mute dog and given it food and shelter. Fisk is unimpressed by this, saying he's known many villains who were kind to animals and more who loved their mothers.
• In Laika, Mikhail's mother and father attempt to make their son a better person by making him care for the titular dog. It doesn't work: Mikhail throws Laika in the river because he's tired of his parents forcing him to take care of a pet he doesn't want.
• The Last Days of Krypton: As ambitious and obstinate as Tyr-Us is, he thanks Alura for her hospitality and refreshments while on the run from Zod and sincerely apologizes for briefly feeling paranoid that she was drugging him. He also declines to stay in Argo City out of fear that he'll endanger Zor-El and Alura by doing so.
• In Love Thy Neighbor by Fr. Alexander Dyachenko, one of the Nested Story arcs involves this trope. An SS officer in a Nazi-occupied Belarusian village often visits a local woman and her kids (whether because he is attracted to her or just misses his own family, is unclear). When it's discovered that the woman is hiding a Jewish boy and the Nazis plan to burn the house down, that officer warns her about it in advance, letting her escape with the children.
• In the Malazan Book of the Fallen, Cotillion tries to alleviate some of Sorry's fear right before he possesses her, reassuring her that the experience won't be that bad. The further into the series you get, the more he seems to recover his compassion and humanity, often helping out Sorry, who renames herself Apsalar after the possession ends, and obviously regretting his treatment of her.
• Troll king Thibault, presented as the Big Bad of Malediction Trilogy, has a moment of this, when he shows true kindness and care for his wife Mathilde. This does not extend to his son Tristan, though, whom he tortures and threatens with death.
• In Mansfield Park, Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Mary Crawford saves Fanny from a round of verbal abuse by Aunt Norris and cultivates a friendship with her, but the emphasis really is on pet the dog. She saves Fanny because she also doesn't want to participate in the activity Fanny's being pressured into and takes notice of her mostly because Maria and Julia Bertram have left for Bath; ultimately, she likes Fanny for being a convenient source of society when there's no one else available.
• In Murder at Colefax Manor, the player can be quite nice to the poor maid who found the murder victim.
• "My Dinner with Ares": When Ogbunabali's presence aggravates a man's preexisting heart condition, he causally wills it so that the condition won't kill him for another few years.
• You can always tell who the good guys are in Ouida's stories. Kindness to animals was a signature trait for her.
• Peter and the Starcatchers:
  • At the beginning of the second book, Lord Ombra has his henchmen release their hostage (one of Fighting Prawn's daughters) once they've retreated to their boats. This is the only time in the series where a villain actually intends to keep their word to release a hostage once the heroes meet their demands.
  • In Sword of Mercy, Cheeky O'Neal yells for his fellow henchmen to join him in sliding on a log to escape a lava flow rather than abandoning them.
  • Cave of The Dark Wind. When Hook sends two men to steal a goat for him, he's so excited at the thought of something new in his diet that he promises to share the meat with them. Smee views this as an unprecedented act of generosity from Hook.
  • In Blood Tide, after a mermaid saves Hook from drowning, he's touched by the gesture and responds appropriately.
  [H]e spoke two words that he had never-not once-uttered or even thought of uttering. Two words that to him sounded almost like a foreign language. But they were the two most honest words he'd ever spoken. "Thank you," he said.
• In the Rainbow Magic series, Jack Frost and his goblins get a lot of these moments, usually when they've done something really bad and realize it.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Despite Ophelia Salvadori being a Serial Rapist of male students, she's still ultimately human and gets lonely living a solitary life in the labyrinth. In volume 2 (anime episode 8), Oliver runs into her when she's in a good mood and they're able to have a civil conversation: it comes out that among other things she has a sweet tooth and sometimes still comes up to the cafeteria for the pumpkin pie. She's acquainted with Oliver's cousin Shannon Sherwood for much the same reason, probably helped by their Commonality Connection of both having been forced into a Teen Pregnancy for familial obligations. She also subtly tries to warn Oliver away from the labyrinth for the next while, foreshadowing her planned Grand Aria that causes her to be consumed by the spell.
• Early in The Running Man, Richards manages to convince an asshole cop to give him some money for a phone call to his family. The man adds that if he tells anyone that he's a "softy", he'll come back and kick Richards' ass.
• Blake Snyder's Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need doesn't just discuss this trope — he's the alternate Trope Namer.
• Scavenge the Stars: Romara is a ruthless Mafia Princess and criminal, but she also gives Cayo money to help fund medicine for his sister's illness as a gift.
• Henry, from The Secret History, did organize the murder of one friend, attempt to kill another, and represent himself as a Magnificent Bastard in general. But he did save Richard from dying of exposure in the Vermont winter.
• In The Silmarillion, Maedhros's attempt to save the sons of Dior, and Maglor's fostering of Elrond and Elros. In both cases, said children were killed and/or orphaned because said Elves (reluctantly) led a completely unprovoked invasion of their homeland.
• Several characters from A Song of Ice and Fire get Pet the Dog moments:
  • Significant is Jaime Lannister, who is the only member of his immediate family to show any kindness to his brother Tyrion. He gets a few more as the series progresses.
  • Jaqen H'ghar pets Arya, which is horrific news for several of the nastier villains.
  • One of Gregor Clegane's men, Shitmouth, is mentioned as giving captives extra bread if they want.
  • Melisandre's creepy magic and morally dubious methods (including assassination and human sacrifice) frequently put her in conflict with King Stannis' other advisor, the loyal and upright Davos Seaworth, but in A Dance with Dragons, she tries to keep Davos' 12-year-old son out of danger because she feels sorry for Davos and doesn't think he needs to suffer any more grief.
  • Sandor Clegane rescues Arya from certain death at the Red Wedding, even as he knows the people he planned on ransoming her to are being slaughtered. Sandor is also wholeheartedly affectionate towards his horse, Stranger.
  • About the only things that cause Gregor Clegane to show any emotion other than murderous rage are his dogs.
• In "The Staff in the Stone" by Garth Nix, when Colrean first moves to a rural area, the locals identify him as a magician because he speaks to the village dogs, and as a good magician because he speaks to them kindly.
• Star Wars Legends:
  • Mandalorian Walon Vau, a Drill Sergeant Nasty type, dotes upon his pet strill Lord Mirdalan. He takes Mird with him everywhere, wipes up any food it spills on itself, and is prepared to sleep outside with the strill when it isn't permitted indoors. The man is tough as nails, but he takes Mird into battles in the same way, and with the same care, as fathers in his culture take their sons.
  • In the X-Wing Series, Imperials who aren't all bad inevitably Heel–Face Turn into Rebels. As Imperials they avoid the casual cruelty of their peers. In the books, one Imperial Star Destroyer captain has a scene where he fusses over his outfits, trying to pick the one that will please his lover the most. Another goes over how he was assigned to wipe out a village which had produced an assassin, and while he did destroy it, he went down and told everyone first, and gave them time to evacuate. In the comics, Sixtus Quin admires how the Rebels fight before being betrayed and pulling a Heel–Face Turn. And Baron Soontir Fel has stunning integrity and loves his wife.
  • In The Thrawn Trilogy, our first real look at the smuggler and Knowledge Broker Talon Karrde has him having dinner with Mara Jade and telling his vornskr, a doglike creature, to leave. He chastises it mildly and tosses it a bit of meat before it leaves.
  • Yun, a Dark Jedi apprentice from the Dark Forces Saga novelizations, is spared by Kyle Katarn, which starts all sorts of philosophical questions going in his mind. He begins to wonder if the Dark Side really is stronger, and if his masters are right. His first and most significant Pet the Dog moment is when a cave-in in an archaeological mine traps a worker beneath a massive slab of rock. The other workers and droids can't lift it as it slowly crushes him. Yun, unwilling to leave the man to die, as any other Dark Jedi would, tells the others to get ready to pull him to safety and focuses all of his willpower on lifting the rock. He succeeds just long enough for the soldiers to save the man, and only afterwards realizes that he had abandoned the Dark Side when the chips were down.
  • The only Star Wars villain less likely than Jabba the Hutt to have a pet the dog moment is Palpatine, but in a bit of EU canon a close friend of Jabba's recalls the time the Hutt saved his life. Long before the events of the original trilogy, Jabba and Ephant Mon were raiding an Imperial weapons cache only to be double crossed and attacked by stormtroopers. They escaped but were caught in the middle of a fierce blizzard with no transportation or shelter. When Ephant Mon passed out from the cold, Jabba shielded him with his layers of fat to keep him warm, saving his life. This wasn't because the Hutt needed him for some reason, but because they truly were friends.
  • Zigzagged in Splinter of the Mind's Eye when Antagonistic Governor Grammel (who Would Hit a Girl) expresses gratitude to a medic who just treated his wounds and offers her whatever she wants. What she wants is for him not to execute the guards who let his prisoners escape. Grammel seems unhappy with the request but muses that he needs every available soldier for the upcoming fight anyway, and agrees not to execute anyone.
  • Fate of the Jedi has Sith Vestara Khai. Much attention is given to how she loves her father, and her pet uvak, Tikk.
  • In Dark Lord—The Rise of Darth Vader, Vader is surprisingly lenient with Bail Organa for harboring Fang Zar. When Zar nearly escapes, Vader accepts Bail's word that he wasn't involved. Vader also expresses sorrow when Shryne kills Commander Appo, outright stating that he was fond of him.
• Grand Moff Tarkin, of all people, in Star Wars: Lost Stars. When he catches young Ciena and Thane playing near his personal shuttle, he gives them a personal tour and inspires them to join the Imperial military when they grow up. Of course, it was probably just to gain future recruits.
• The Stormlight Archive: As the spirit of the Highstorm, the Stormfather is a dispassionate force of nature rather than evil. All the same, when Eshonai dies in a Highstorm, he takes up her spirit on his winds and carries it around the globe, fulfilling her lifelong wish to see the world before she passes into the Beyond.
• These Broken Stars: Tarver and Lilac share one in their first meeting at a soirée aboard the Icarus, when Tarver spots a gatecrasher and follows him. Turns out he's harmless, only there to beg Lilac to appeal to her father to provide his colony planets with technology, because people are dying without it. When the man is assaulted by some high-class, snobbish young men who are implied to be trying to impress Lilac, they both intervene, with Lilac telling the men off and Tarver escorting the gatecrasher safely away.
• Jefferson Pinkard from Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 series starts out as a very likable character but slowly does a Face–Heel Turn until he's become the alternate universe's equivalent of Adolph Eichmann, ruthlessly sending the black population of the CSA to their deaths in concentration camps. However, to the end of the series he genuinely loves his wife and stepson and often worries about what will happen to them when the war turns bad for his side.
  • Jake Featherston — the CSA version of Adolf Hitler — gets a few himself, usually with his secretary. Described as a phenomenally ugly woman who is incredibly sensitive about her appearance, Lulu is devoted to Featherston, upon whom she nurses a sizeable crush. Featherston doesn't view her that way at all, but he does go out of his way to be polite to her, and doesn't tolerate anyone else being mean to her. At the end, when she's fatally wounded in a plane crash, it's Featherston who — at her request — puts her out of her misery.
• Skeeter's introduced as a minor villain in the first Time Scout book. The second doesn't give you much reason to think otherwise, until you learn about his back story. Just before that happens, he keeps a promise and gives a small fortune to a friend known to be perfectly innocent and good.
• Played straight and subverted a few times in the Tortall Universe:
  • Subverted in the third book of The Immortals. Emperor Ozorne is a Friend to All Living Things (animals, anyway) and particularly birds. His menageries are some of the best in the world and when an animal doesn't thrive in captivity despite the full resources of the empire, he has it returned to its home region. The songbirds in his aviary take sick and he frets about them, and when Daine heals them he takes to her. This is all very nice, but one of his subjects quietly warns Daine that Ozorne shows his best side in regard to birds but possesses... other sides. Daine doesn't think she needs the warning after two years of regarding him as the Big Bad, but she generally struggles because his good side is so good. His nephew Kaddar complains that Ozorne cares way more about animals than the actual people of Carthak - he can shrug at the loss of an entire company of soldiers and is callously mismanaging his empire to fuel his A God Am I ambitions, but the world knew about his birds being sick.
  • Played straight in Protector of the Small. Lord Wyldon ignores that Kel is keeping Jump as a pet and when questioned, says he's just a palace stray that's taken a liking to the pages. By the end of the book Wyldon has gotten over his dislike of a girl page. (We also learn that Wyldon's family is known for breeding dogs.)
  • Subverted again in the second Beka Cooper book. Big Bad Pearl Skinner likes dogs, and she's quite outraged when Beka tells how she rescued scent hound Achoo from an abusive handler. Beka's a bit irritated to find that Pearl has one redeeming quality among her cruel, self-centered ruthlessness.
• In the first book of The Traitor Son Cycle, de Vrailly's "angel" tells him that the King of Alba is going to be killed in an ambush, and that de Vrailly should take this opportunity to become the new king, as he's wanted. De Vrailly's code of honour, however, perseveres, and he switches places with the King and almost dies in his stead. Unfortunately, the "angel" spins it as a Secret Test of Character, further securing de Vrailly's loyalty.
• Ripred from The Underland Chronicles is never more than civil to anyone, until he meets Lizzie.
• Unravel Me: One suspected villain feeds a dog while, unbeknownst to him, Juliette is watching. This proves that he is actually a good person because he did not do it for show, and it goes against all of his evil acts so far.
• Villains by Necessity:
  • The group all have moments and relationships that keep them from being entirely evil people. The most obvious and present is Blackmail's sincere and touching love for his horse, to the point of nearly hitting a Despair Event Horizon when it dies.
  • Virtually, any moment where the rest of the group is nice to young Robin, an otherwise Good person. In one situation, Valerie "enchants" a necklace, and gives it to him, to help him deal with his claustrophobia. Funny enough, even after he's outed, and he finds out about the fact that he was outed, he still keeps it (oddly enough, one would expect Mizzamir to point out the truth about the necklace to the centaur, if it had indeed been magical).
• Warcraft Expanded Universe:
  • In Lord of the Clans, Grom Hellscream chastises his fellow orcs for kidnapping a child, since that was not how warriors acted.
  • Variations of this happen a few times in the World of Warcraft as well, as Grom is highly suspiscious of the Forsaken because of their willingness to use the Plague against the living, and views it as a highly dishonest way of engaging in warcraft.
• One could argue that the entire Gaunt's Ghosts and Ciaphas Cain (HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!) book series of Warhammer 40,000 are extended Pet the Dog moments for the entire Imperium of Man, showing unmodified, poorly equipped, (relatively) poorly trained human beings fighting wholeheartedly for the Imperium and the Emperor, and that many of them are genuinely good people with noble motivations, forced to fight horrors beyond comprehension by sane minds. In fact, most games, books, whatever that are about one planet or army will be this.
• Warlock Series: In Ordeal in Otherwhere, Jagan is clearly distressed by Sheeha's insanity, and Charis suspects they were close before it.
• Mayor Poynt of the second Welkin Weasels trilogy is a spoilt jerk who steals money from charity collections and leaves the actual running of the city to his sister, but after an operation he's accidentally left to wake up in Bedlam House. Seeing what it's really like frightens him enough that he arranges for it to be cleaned up and turned into a proper hospital.
• West Meadows Detectives: Sarah "Smasher" McGintley is the meanest kid in school. In The Case of the Snack Snatchers, she and her cronies, Cameron and Carter, try to intimidate Myron and Hajrah out of investigating the snack thefts. It turns out that the culprit is a mother raccoon and her babies, who started living in a hole in the school's roof after a storm knocked over their tree. Smasher wants to protect the raccoons, and checks on them every morning to make sure they're okay.
• The Wheel of Time:
  • Subverted in one chapter of the fifth book: the viewpoint character is a mook whose plan is going dangerously badly, and who is thinking about how he would much rather be back home instead and how much he misses his beloved sister. Then the plan fails completely and he has to kill an accomplice to cover his tracks; and as he's disposing of the body at the end of the chapter he goes back to reminiscing about his sister, and what a pity it was that she discovered what he was and would have exposed him...
  • A similar subversion occurs with a minor villain who has been causing a lot of trouble for the protagonists, yet persistently failed to capture them as per his mission. He's been told that as long as he continues to fail, members of his family will periodically be killed in horrific ways until there are none left. In a segment from his viewpoint, he expresses considerable grief and horror over this, but when a representative of the dark side appears, he immediately begins to babble about how many relatives he has left.
  • An in-universe case of this helps to resolve a major plot point, when Perrin rescues a child from a pile of rubble. The person he's with has been trying to decide whether he's really good or evil, which would determine whether his faction allies with Perrin or tries to kill him. Perrin's Super-Senses mean that only he could have known the child was there, so he could have passed by with no one being the wiser and calling him out for it; the fact that he goes out of his way to help someone with no benefit to himself proves he's a good person.
  • One Black Ajah Sister — a Deep Cover Agent of the God of Evil — goes out of her way to feed and Heal stray animals, particularly cats. Given the sort of things she does to human beings, it says more about her Moral Myopia than about any sort of Hidden Heart of Gold.
• The White Tiger: Even though Balram kills Mr. Ashok and shamelessly bribes the police to start his own business, he does have his moments, such as taking his nephew Dharam to the zoo and compensating the family of the boy one of his taxi drivers killed.
• The Witchlands:
  • Leopold is one of the very few people who address Aeduan by his name or his title of "Monk" instead of "demon", "Bloodwitch", etc.
  • Merik thinks he's doing this by not revealing that Cam is a Sweet Polly Oliver. Cam is transgender, and calls him out on this (along with several other things), leading to Merik realizing how conceited he is.
  • Near the end of Windwitch, Aeduan gets a small girl to care about.
• Wolf Hall:
  • The Duke of Norfolk hates Cromwell (indeed, he and Stephen Gardiner were responsible for Cromwell's fall and execution after the Anne of Cleves affair), and even when he visits during Cromwell's fever, it's implied that he's disappointed not to find him dying. Still, he does get one moment approaching kindness the day after Henry loudly and publicly accuses Cromwell of disloyalty by simply asking "all right, lad?" at the next council meeting.
  • Cromwell himself is very much a Villain Protagonist but is always kind to children and animals. He has a succession of little dogs all named Bella (and some cats) and when Anne's little dog is threatened with being thrown out a window Cromwell is also horrified and comforts her.
• The Wolfhound once rescues a girl who was gangraped and Driven to Suicide by some thugs. Seing how women abuse is his personal Berserk Button, he immediately sets forth to hunt them down. He slaughters all but two thugs in the first encounter, and when he approaches those two, they try to plead for their lives: one tells that he was the one who convinced the gang leader to spare the girl's life, and the other - that he was only holding her. Neither case works.

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