Musing on Mutts

Another look at Kirby's siblings (at a much younger age) only adds to the mystery. Number 1 there definitely passes for Jack Russell parentage...(the short-legged kind also known as Irish Jacks or Shorty Jacks)... Number 2 looks more like her mom in coloring, but teeny legs. Number three looks the most like Kirby with the exception of color, and that last little guy, the short-haired one, pretty much screams dachsund, doesn't he?













Well, as a person whose lineage traces back to at least six different countries, I can confirm that in the big picture, it really doesn't matter if you're a mutt or not. But given how similar all nationalities and races of humans are when you really stop and think about it, I find it particularly fascinating that a Great Dane and a Chihuahua are just different races of the same species and can breed. Considering the amazing feat of Kirby's obviously vertically-challenged papa, we all know that where there's a will, there's a way.

Of course, human intervention has taken the dog from a form that looked like a wolf and created this huge diversity of pattern and scale over thousands of years. I guess the dogs, when left to their own devices, are just striving to get back to that middle ground. But let's not leave them to their own devices...there are far too many unwanted dogs in the shelters and too few who, like Kirby and his family, found happy homes.