Yes, in part: Quincas Borba is the name of a philosopher and also of his dog, which was named after its master. The philosopher is the man who invents the doctrine of Humanitas and leaves the fortune to Rubião; the dog is the animal the will obliges Rubião to keep, and which accompanies him from Barbacena to Rio and back to Barbacena, where it dies shortly after him.
The narrator describes him as "a handsome dog, of medium size, coat the color of lead, spotted with black." The philosopher takes him everywhere and weeps when he leaves him with Rubião. When the philosopher dies, Rubião thinks: "Now that the obligation is over, I will give him to comadre Angélica." Once the will is opened, he discovers that the dog is the sole condition of the inheritance, runs to the comadre's house, and finds him in a pen, where the dog greets him with joy and frenzy.
In Botafogo, Rubião lets him out every day. The dog rejoices, takes beatings and forgets, because, the narrator says, he has "a very short memory for beatings": "He likes to be loved. He is content to believe that he is." Rubião sometimes slaps him, sometimes caresses him, and more than once wonders whether the philosopher's soul has passed into the dog's body, when he sees in its eyes the gaze of the dead friend.
The dog accompanies Rubião in his madness. When his master is committed, he tries to follow the carriage and is locked up at home. In Barbacena, he sleeps beside him in the open air and is sheltered with him by the comadre. After his master's death, he falls ill, flees in search of his master, and is found dead in the street.