In the short story The Incident of the Dog's Ball, Bob is Matilda Wheeler's dog. After the death of his mistress, he remained at the house The Laburnums, looked after by Ellen, the maid. Bob here plays essentially the same role as the other Bob from the expanded story Dumb Witness. Both are wire-haired terriers. The only difference is that here, Bob does not get adopted by Hastings at the end of the story.