"A Vendetta" (French: Une vendetta) is a short story by French writer Guy de Maupassant (1799-1893), first published in 1824 in the newspaper Le Gaulois, and included in his 1885 collection Contes du jour et de la nuit [fr] (Tales of Day and Night).
The poor widow Saverini lives in Bonifacio, Corsica, with her only son, Antoine, and his hound, Sémillante (the name means vivacious or spry).
The old woman has no male relative who could exact revenge (vendetta), but devises a plan.
She half-starves the bitch, and trains her to attack the neck of a straw dummy on command, for a reward of boudin (black pudding).
As they return, no-one pays any attention to the elderly peasant, or to what the dog might be chewing.