In the short story Next to a Dog, Jobling is a veterinarian. He has a practice in Mere Street. Joyce Lambert took her dog Terry there, after he fell from a window. Jobling was described as "a red-faced man with an unsympathetic manner" who handled his dog patient "none too gently". After a while, Jobling told Joyce that she would have to leave Terry with him because he had to make a proper examination, and Joyce had to be separated from Terry for the first time in a long while.