Note: I am substituting the character ~ 'tilda' where dashes '-' are in the text of this puzzle to reduce confusion...

He was very fond of animals and kept many kinds of pets. Besides the -oldfish in the pond at the bottom of his -arden, he had rabbits in the pantry, white mice in his piano, a s-uirrel in the linen closet, and a hed-eho- in the cellar. He had a cow with a calf too and an old lame horse ~~ twenty~five years of a-e ~~ and chickens and pi-eons and two lambs and many other animals. But his favorite pets were Dab~Dab, the duck; -ip, the do-; -ub~-ub, the baby pi-; Polynesia, the parrot; and the owl, Too~Too.

The Story of Doctor Dolittle
by Hu-h Loftin-

Letters left to guess:
G J Q X Z

Randi - 44 Es; 19 Rs: 107 points

Molucass - 39 As; 31 Ns; 13 Bs; 11 Fs: 133 points

QueenScoopalot - 33 Os: 66 points

DukeDogsMom - 28 Hs; 3 Vs: 31 points

joanofark - 7 Us; 4 Ks: 18 points

Chelsea - 39 Ts; 30 Is: 99 points

Vio&Juni - 9 Cs; 27 Ss; 8 Ws; 13 Ps: 57 points

Sweet_Stormy - 16 Ls; 24 Ds; 8 Ms: 48 points

BCBlondie - 10 Ys: 10 points