To the List,
Michael Strickland's correction of confusion between dogs Flush and Floss rang a little bell and I was able to establish that Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote a poem "To Flush, My Dog" - - to which a charming note is appended:
This dog was the gift of my dear and admired friend, Miss Mitford, and belongs to the beautiful race she has rendered celebrated among English and American readers. The Flushes have their laurels as well as the Cęsars, -- the chief difference (at least the very head and front of it) consisting, according to my perception, in the bald head. (Browning's note)
Perhaps Woolf's dog came from the same line? The Nabokov's dachshund, Box, I believe, was a descendant of a dog that belonged to Chekhov, though how this came about I've no idea. Dmitri?
Carolyn