I’ve known a couple of letter-carriers, and they have had fairly horrendous experiences. Not just with the dogs, but with their employer, leading to the infection of an untreated bite wound, for example.
Aristotle taught that unlucky people are wicked. For either of two reasons—they may not know what they’ve done wrong, but the gods do; and, “accident prone” people turn out, on close inspection, to be given to risky behavior.
Well, even without disinheritance, the family fortunes came from something called the Bumstead Locomotive Works. A lot of companies made locomotives, even some actual railroads once, and competition was fierce even before the business dried up. By the way, names don’t have meaning, they have etymologies (which had meaning). “Dagwood” as a word does have meaning, it’s a huge, many-layered sandwich.
Great (and unusual) art work.