Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Maggie

Around nine years ago, a mixed breed dog joined our family. My in-laws own a business near the Indy airport and, one day, a dog took up residence under their dumpster. We don't know where she came from or how she came to be sleeping under a dumpster. We checked newspapers and shelters to see if anyone reported a lost dog matching her description but never found a thing. We assume someone dropped he off somewhere. Terribly sad.

Fortunately, though, my in-laws like dogs, fed her a few ham sandwiches, and took her home. Anyway, she stole my then-fiancee's heart and has been with us ever since. Maggie is part of our family and we love her dearly. She's a terrific dog but still somewhat of a mystery as we have no idea what breeds combined to create Maggie. When people ask what kind of dog she is, we usually answer with something like "brown" because that's the best we've got. There are a couple tests (Mars Wisdom Panel™ MX Mixed Breed and MetaMorphic Canine Heritage Breed) available to help track down your mixed-breed's heritage and I admit that I'm tempted. We haven't sprung for it and I doubt that we will. Still, it's an interesting proposal.

Has anyone else tried one of these tests? What was your experience? Looking at these pictures of our 23 pound brown dog, any thoughts on breed? Lab? Dachshund?


3 comments:

Joanna said...

I'd guess chocolate lab mix. Dunno about dachshund- It looks like the lab was mixed with something with longer hair than a lab- Australian shepherd perhaps?

I think i just really want an Australian shepherd of my own, so I see them everywhere.

RetroBrett said...

Yeah. We've always thought Choc. Lab was a possibility. She's a lot smaller than your standard Lab but she does have the retriever-like webbed toes.

Anonymous said...

This is going to sound really strange, but she looks almost identical to a dog that a friend of mine owns, that is a husky/cocker spaniel mix. That one is about 19 pounds.

I doubt she's the same thing, but I just thought I'd point out that she's not necessarily a lab mix. I own a pureblood lab and a mix breed myself, and she really looks a lot different in the shape of her bone structure. It's still a possibility, but... Yeah.