Who is Bendico from The Leopard and what is their importance?

Bendico is the Prince's dog. He is a source of pure joy and pleasure for the Prince during his troubled middle age. Narration describes how after his death, Bendico's skin was turned into a rug, and how the aging Concetta held on to that rug, along with other mementos of the past that. Over time, however, the rug became as useless and spiritually confining as the memories of her glorious, aristocratic childhood and youth. In the novel's final moments, the Bendico rug is thrown out a window.