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Recent Battles
Queen Victoria
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Juicing The Sheep
09 April 2009 11:11 AM | No CommentsThe Journal of Queen Victoria Thursday, October 21, 1868 “Juicing the Sheep“ At a quarter to twelve I drove off with Louise and Leopold in the waggonette up to near the “Bush” (the residence of William Brown, the farmer) to see them “juice the sheep.”...
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Queen Victoria’s Border Collies
26 January 2009 4:40 AM | 18 CommentsFor well over a century the “Collie” name has been co-opted by show breeders who have created a monster whose face looks like a door stop with beady eyes set in triangular slits. These same people have co-opted the notion that Queen Victoria was deeply...
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Show Me the Collie
22 January 2009 3:38 AM | 1 CommentHaving established that Queen Victoria’s direct influence on the proliferation of the show Collie is insubstantial at best, let’s explore what impact the Monarchy may have, in fact, had on the culture of dogs during her reign. Five. If the show Collie owes more to...
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The Queen and the Collie
20 January 2009 2:57 AM | 2 CommentsThe old wisdom on the rise of the show Collie is that Queen Victoria met them on a trip to Scotland in the 1860s, became infatuated, acquired them, sponsored them in shows, bred them, and her abundant trend-setting prowess lead to their bountiful rise to...
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The Victorian Collie Myth
19 January 2009 8:03 PM | 3 CommentsThe prevailing creation myth among show Collie enthusiasts is that Queen Victoria’s infatuation with the breed set the ball in motion, elevating the humble farm dog to aristocratic splendor. Queen Victoria saw her first Collies in the 1860′s, and she enthusiastically began to sponsor them,...
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Juicing The Sheep
genetics Archive
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The Mara Mystery
Posted on February 23, 2010 | 17 CommentsWhat color is Mara? Having had the pleasure of studding out both Mercury and Dublin to Mara, the 8 resulting puppies have created more questions than have been answered. Mara’s breeder concluded that she was a Cryptic Merle Lilac Tricolor. This is a fair assessment... -
Mercury Puppies at 4 Weeks
Posted on February 19, 2010 | 7 CommentsAlthough Mara's unique expression of the Merle gene (or a heretofore unidentified modification gene) is still making exact classification of the pups a challenge, the one thing that's for certain is that they are all homozygous for CUTE.
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Mercury Rang the Bell
Posted on January 19, 2010 | 21 CommentsMy little baby Mercury is a father! His present for his second birthday was his first co-ed sleep over with that hot red head Mara, and now she’s given birth to six beautiful and healthy border collie puppies. Oh they grow up so fast, and... -
Impending Doom
Posted on January 7, 2009 | 1 Comment“For the sins of your fathers you, though guiltless, must suffer.” -Horace, “Odes,” III, 6, l. 1. Many of you saw Pedigree Dogs Exposed and were shocked. You were looking at breeds that were so far gone as to never return; disfigured, diseased, and dead... -
Follow the Rats
Posted on November 26, 2008 | 5 CommentsIn my last post I quoted one of my favorite sayings, “When the bow is beneath the waves, follow the rats,” which is based on a slightly less melodious quote by Claude Swanson–a lifelong politician and Secretary of the Navy under FDR. The obvious interpretation... -
Genetic Engineering 101
Posted on November 8, 2008 | 2 CommentsThe always relevant and topical Dolittler blog recently posted about “Franken-animals poised to enter the Franken-food supply,” which started a great discussion in the comments. But sadly Dolittler’s comments hate me and randomly reject my replies 9 out of 10 times. I think it’s a...
Queen Victoria's Border Collies