Doctor Dolittle or too dull. The stories are set in early Victorian England, where Doctor John Dolittle lives in the fictional English village of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh in the West Country. Doctor Dolittle has a few close human friends, including Tommy Stubbins and Matthew Mugg, the Cats'-Meat Man. The animal team includes Polynesia (a parrot), Gub-Gub (a pig), Jip (a dog), Dab-Dab (a duck), Chee-Chee (a monkey), Too-Too (an owl), the Pushmi-pullyu, and a white mouse later named simply "Whitey". One inspiration for his character appears to be the Scottish surgeon John Hunter. "The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar
Doctor Dolittle's Circus friends get paid by the Doctor to plant radishes to feed the horses with. The Doctor then gets his animal friends, including Dub-Dub, Gub-Gub, Jip, Toby and Swizzle, to perform in a play called The Puddleby Pantomime and is approved by Mr Bellamy when the performance is done. One day Blossum makes a mysterious disappearance with the money he owes everyone and when Mathew Mugg comes back, after a search for him, to say he couldn't find him, the circus people suggest the Doctor should be the manager of the circus. The Doctor reluctantly agrees and arranges everything to his