The Story of Doctor Dolittle

Doctor Dolittle

John Dolittle is the beloved doctor of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh, a man whose house overflows with rabbits, mice, a hedgehog, and a parrot named Polynesia. When his animal menagerie drives away every paying patient and his sister Sarah scolds him for it, he chooses the animals anyway — a choice that leaves him nearly penniless but fluent in their speech. That gift turns him from a failed country doctor into the one man the world's animals trust, and it is why a message from sick monkeys in Africa will soon pull him out to sea.

Jip

Jip is one of the Doctor's five favorite pets, a dog who stays close whether his master is tending sick animals on the lawn or losing his last patients to a hedgehog on the sofa. Where the household grumbles, Jip simply follows, and his keen sense of smell becomes a practical tool once the journey turns strange. He matters because he embodies the quiet, unquestioning devotion that Dolittle's animal family offers in place of the human society that has abandoned him.

Polynesia

Polynesia sits in the window of the Dolittle house, watching leaves blow and mocking humans for thinking themselves so wonderful when the only animal word they understand is a wagging tail. She is the one who first teaches the Doctor to talk with animals, and her age — she claims to remember King Charles hiding in an oak — gives her a long, skeptical view of everyone, human and beast. Her impatience and cunning make her the Doctor's most useful adviser once the voyage begins, and her voice sets the book's tone of wry, unsentimental affection for its hero.

Gub-Gub

Gub-Gub is the household's comic appetite, a pig more interested in the next meal than in the Doctor's grand mission, and he is often found poking his snout toward whatever kitchen is nearest. That greed makes him both a nuisance and, occasionally, a messenger — as when Polynesia uses him to wake the Doctor in a foreign prison. He matters because he keeps the adventure grounded in ordinary, bodily wants, reminding readers that Dolittle's animal family is not a chorus of sages but a household of very specific, very stubborn personalities.

Chee-Chee

Chee-Chee belongs to the expanding household of animals that Dolittle collects as his human practice collapses, one of the creatures who stays because the Doctor never has the heart to send anyone away. As a monkey, he carries the memory of Africa and the connections that will matter when the Doctor needs guides, translators, and allies among the jungle's inhabitants. He matters because he turns the Doctor's sentimental habit of taking in strays into a practical advantage, bridging the Puddleby parlor and the foreign country where the real work waits.

Dab-Dab

Dab-Dab is one of the five favorite pets who share the Doctor's small house, and she is the one who behaves as though someone has to be sensible about it. Where Polynesia philosophizes and Gub-Gub eats, Dab-Dab manages — a duck with a housekeeper's instincts in a home that has never once been tidy. She matters because she gives the animal family its domestic spine, and because her willingness to travel with the Doctor shows that his pets are not ornaments but companions who choose the hardship alongside him.