Chapter 15: Nutter Mutt

Sam handmade me a banana split to celebrate my graduation.

“When I was a kid, learning to swim was a half drowned affair, sink or swim. administered by older siblings, youthful uncles, cousins, and their bully friends. Most farm-boys learned by this method, or died trying. For townies, the YMCA offered an alternative, but only to members, teaching a graduated tier of ever more advanced swim classes. My mom sent me to her sister’s, Aunt Julie’s house. She lived in town with her family of five boys and one tiny girl cousin and they enjoyed the economical Y family membership. I joined the beginner’s class with cousin Annie, as Minnows. Once we could demonstrate basic floating and dog paddle swimming, we were promoted to ... ummm ... guppies, I think was the next class. The great part about graduating from the Minnows, was Aunt Julie presented us with a homemade banana split to celebrate. First one I’d ever eaten. My cousin Annie demonstrated the danger of overlong admiring this piece of artcraft. She voraciously demolished it with her spoon, exceeding her fair portion.

Well, Joey, I promote you with all due honors, passing from minnow to guppy dog handler. Here’s your banana split, your spoon, and here’s mine. Dig in, the devil take the last.”

Can you guess the best part about advancing from minnow to guppy? Not the banana split I got very little of, but getting my own dog. Guppy stage involves training the dog and master together.

Dogs don’t live forever, nor as long as humans, so there will be other dogs in my future I’ll need to train, if I am fortunate to outlive them.

Sam insists upon selecting two puppies for me, to keep company for each other, but I have to pay for them. I’m judged too ignorant about breeding and character traits to select any pups myself. The breeder we bought from, is not one that inspires confidence in me. Tne kennels name is “Nutter Mutts”. There is not one pedigreed champion or even a single pure bred dog of any kind at Nutter Mutts. All the parent dogs are themselves crossbreeds, some double crossbreeds, or even more muttier pools of genes. All the pups are like alphabet soup of many mixed breeds. The one advantage Nutter mutts offers, is a certified history of the pup’s genetic antecedent contributors, a pedigree of sorts, going back to the original purebreds in the line. There are ancient champions mentioned, listed in the first generations.

I’m learning half breed names for dogs I never heard of before. Never knew existed.

The mother of the female pup Sam selects for me is half Shollie, which is a cross between German Shepherd and a Border Collie.

Also half Kelpie Heeler, a cross between the Aussie Kelpie and the Australian Cow Dog known as Blue Heelers. All are herding dogs.

The mother of the pup’s sire is half Border Collie and half Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog. The sire’s sire is half Corsengi, a Corgi and Basenji mix and the other half Basenjipoo, a Basenji Poodle hybrid. All herd dogs except the Poodle and Basinji. Every predecessor is a acknowledged smart breed. So what is the pup like?

A loyal short legged speedy and athletic genius herd dog. Fastidiously self grooms like a cat, tolerates heat, can leap straight up in the air, always land on her feet running and can duck kicks.

She’s brave as a lion, protective of her family and livestock charges, and tirelessly runs circles around flocks or herds, nonstop all day.

The ratio of the different breeds she incorporates is a bit confusing! Since both parents are quarter Border Collie, the pup is predominantly also one quarter Border Collie. The sire contributes 1/8 Border Collie added to mom’s 1/8th, totaling 1/4 predominance.

If I’m counting right, the pup is also 1/8 German Shepherd, 1/8 Kelpie, 1/8 Blue Heeler from the mom’s side

.

The pup gets from her dad, 1/8th Catahoula Leopard, 1/8 Basenji, and added dashes and a pinch of 1/16th Corgi, and 1/16th Poodle.

The male pup Sam selects is less complicated but similar in size, and short legged because he’s also 1/16th Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Also one quarter Border Collie, from different lines than the bitch pup. One quarter German Shepard, one quarter Golden Retriever, one sixteenth Jack Russel, and for added spice, shares with the female pup, one eighth Catahoula Leopard, their only blood relation held in common.

He is short haired caramel colored with a white froth of fur at his throat, marked like a Pembroke Corgi. She is marked more like a Blue Heeler with Catahoula increasing the density and amount of spots almost Dalmation like in quantity. They both inherited the rare Catahoula’s glass eyes, a huge pale blue iris that obscures almost all the white in the eye. A strangely attractive pair of puppy dogs.

The nutty breeder whose Slavic sounding name I can’t pronounce or remember, wanted fifteen hundred dollars for the pair.

Sam told me to walk away. That was difficult, I wanted the pups. As we were driving off, the breeder relented, chased after and stopped us. Twelve hundred final offer. I accepted, and the pups were climbing all over me in excitement, as Sam drove us back to his ranch.