Black Dog?
Why do the other characters sometimes refer to Eslingen as Rathe's black dog? It's comes up once in Point of Knives, twice in Point of Dreams, and six times in Fairs Point. Many different characters say it, most but not all of them connected to law enforcement. I think of a black dog as an ill omen or as something like alcoholism that follows a person relentlessly, not as something desirable. Is that part of the humor?