Re-gifted Tacky Cardigan: How Corgis Herd (as Illustrated by a Dumb@ss)

But first:

<> The diagrams that follow have previously (in 2012) been published on this blog. They were tacky then too, hence, the "re-gifting." And while I'm being honest, I wouldn't be the least bit offended if you went and re-gifted  them again (and so on). They can be like an infinity gift!
<> And, by dumb@ss, I don't mean this guy:

Because, despite his needing major orthodontia, I'd bet he's smarter than someone's honor student. Somewhere. Also, I heart donkeys a lot.

No, I mean this person (who's been posterized in PicMonkey to make her blotches and extra folds less noticeable):

OH MY GOSH! YOU GUYS! I just realized the name "HEE-HAW" (as in the old TV show) is a euphemism for "Dumb@sses"! 

Of course! It makes perfect sense! They couldn't very well have called it the "Dumb@ss" show! It was their own private joke! Hee-haw! Hee-haw! (Note: I watched Hee-Haw before I ever heard of the word "dumb@ss," okay? I think Bart Simpson might have introduced me to that one.)

Ahem. 

So, since I started the week off on a herding note, I thought it might be fun to revisit a couple highly scientific diagrams I made of the dogs performing a herding demo in my back yard. Except, I don't have any barn animals for them to herd, so I substituted Youngest Child. Don't worry, it was his idea he was happy to help. Plus, no one would ever recognize him under that scary foam sheep mask I got at Target.

So in this first example, I've tried to illustrate how Jon Farleigh and Dewi (although both Cardigan Welsh Corgis, in this completely absurd scenario only*) have contrasting herding styles.

* Jon Farleigh isn't always this enlightened. 

And then here, I've illustrated why (when driving cattle, vs. herding sheep) corgis need to have short legs.

Seriously, y'all. They might have looked like hobbits with chicken legs, but those first corgis were total bad@sses! (Why do we have so many slang words with the suffix @ss? It's like we're obsessed with butts or something. I should research that and report back...)

Well, have you learned anything?! Gosh, I hope so! Feel free to share! I won't tell anyone I gifted the information to you twice already! ☺

If you'd like me to consider a photo of your pet(s) for a tacky cardigan, just post it to the Facebook or Tumblr page!

Tacky Cardigan: How Dogs Land Jobs - Genetics, Environment, or Something Else Entirely?

So, answer this question: Which came first, the dog or the dog's job? 

I'll go out on a limb and say the dog. Maybe not the ideal dog, but unlike the unsolvable chicken and egg dilemma, if you're gonna give a dog a job, there has to be a dog sitting there ready to take it, right? But then, how did the humans decide which dogs were best for which jobs? So they could work toward their "breed ideal"? Take cattle driving, for example. Of all the available dogs, WAY back when dogs were first assigned as drovers, how did the farmer decide among all the dogs? I don't know. But I'm beginning to wonder whether the cows had something to do with it...

Disclaimer: The cows made up those jokes, not me.*

Things that make you go hmm. ☺

A huge THANK YOU to my muse, the devastatingly handsome Cocker Spaniel, Dexter, and his mama Carol Bryant (yes, that Dexter, and that Carol Bryant) of the acclaimed pet lifestyle blog Fidose of Reality, for allowing me to use their photo! (I saw it on their Instagram. This was SO MUCH FUN to make!)

UPDATE! I've been feeling remiss about not crediting the cows who have appeared with speaking parts; therefore, here are their names (L to R): Lenny, Mortimer (Mort for short) and Ice-Chest.

* I totally made those dumb jokes up, but I'm allowed. I'm owned by two drovers who are shaped like step stools.

Classic Cardigan: The Time I Met Pit Bull William at the SPCA, Except He Was Really a Cardigan Corgi Mix #NDFAD

The ASPCA has designated today National Dog Fighting Awareness Day (NDFAD), but I'll be using the occasion as an excuse to retell William's story -- at least the part of it that began when we crossed paths at the Richmond SPCA, just before Thanksgiving in 2012.

You see, William -- by visual standards -- was a pit bull: large, block-shaped head, wide jaw, short coat and lean, muscular body. And when I walked by his shelter run that day -- as he had all those physical characteristics (which, by the way, I have come to regard with deep affection since starting this blog) -- he might have been just another (relatively speaking, as there are so many like him who end up homeless) handsome, even-tempered pittie, looking for a loving family to call his own.

Except the sign on his kennel door - in black letters, right beside "breed" - said he was a Cardigan Welsh Corgi/American Staffordshire Terrier mix. 

And that, friends, is where the story begins.

Originally published on November 18, 2012...

Meet (sweet) William, an Adoptable Cardigan Corgi Mix in Richmond, VA!

I took these photos of him while we were playing outside the Richmond SPCA (his temporary home) on Friday. Isn't he a cutie?!

That Kong you've got there makes me happy; toss it, please?
Oh, and by the way, I love you.

Hello. Guess what? I'm thankful for this here Kong...oh, and you, too.

What? Not what you were expecting? Thinking I made a typo in the title?

That perhaps Elizabeth sees the world through "Cardigan-colored glasses*"?

Well actually, I most certainly do/did...NOT!  See...?

screenshot source

Hint: Look at the breed (up there on his Richmond SPCA adoption profile).

Still scratching your head?

Maybe this (which happens to be attached to the door of his shelter run) will clear it up for you...

"See DNA results."

William is A12396298. Wisdom Panel is the name of the company that supplied
and performed the cheek-swab DNA test.

This is what's printed at the top of the test report:

"The Wisdom Panel® Shelter Dog™ computer algorithm performed over seven million calculations using 11 different models (from a single breed to complex combinations of breeds) to predict the most likely combination of pure and mixed breed dogs in the last 3 ancestral generations that best fit the DNA marker pattern observed in A12396298. The ancestry chart depicting the best statistical result of this analysis is shown in the picture below."

Here are William's test results:

Can you make out that Cardigan Corgi silhouette up there on the left?

OK, here's a closer look.

This is the image that transfixed me to the front of William's shelter run. 

Because my crappy camera (I left the nicer one at home) cut off part of the chart, here's the bottom line:

William is a "Cardigan Welsh Corgi (12.5%)/Chinese Shar-Pei (12.5%)/Boxer (12.5%) Mix crossed with American Staffordshire Terrier (25%) Mix." 

But that only adds up to 62.5% of his genetic makeup. That's because the other 37.5% is made up of many other breeds' DNA, but not enough of any particular one to be named with any level of confidence.

Oh, and just so you know, no one at the Richmond SPCA told me about William or asked me to write this post; I discovered his "secret" completely by accident, strolling through the adoptable dogs after a volunteer session earlier this week. I was so taken aback by my discovery, though, that I volunteered to go back the next morning just so I could take William (and some other dogs) for a walk and some play time outside (hence that first photo up there).

So what does all this mean?

(Note: I'm assuming William's DNA sample was clean and the results are accurate.)

That I'm trying to make a case for adopting William because he's part Cardigan Welsh Corgi? Actually, I think that would be a poor reason to adopt William. He deserves better.

To be honest, William is such a great dog (polite, happy, even-tempered, easy on the eyes, healthy, squeezable...) that I'm banking it won't be his "secret" Corgi lineage that swiftly works its way into someone's heart. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets himself adopted before you even finish reading this sentence. (Man, that would be awesome!)

What I am hoping for, however, is that the next time you (or anyone else who reads through this post) meets up with a dog who looks like William, that you might pause and reflect - even for just a moment - about all the sweet "secrets" that possibly (or likely) lie beneath that (oh, so) familiar exterior.

[ahhhhh]

* In fact, through "Cardigan-colored glasses," one could see all the colors in an 8-pack Crayola box, except for green and purple!

♦♦♦ 

Notes:
<> As if there could be any doubt, William didn't remain in the shelter for long. He was adopted and in his new forever home before Thanksgiving.
<> I intentionally omitted the words "pit bull" (and all variations) from the original post.
<> For more information about the wide range of dogs commonly referred to as pit bulls (including their history and common misconceptions), refer to The Truth About Pit Bulls at ASPCA.org.

Meet (sweet) William, an Adoptable Cardigan Corgi Mix in Richmond, VA!

I took these photos of him while we were playing outside the Richmond SPCA (his temporary home) on Friday. Isn't he a cutie?!

That Kong you've got there makes me happy; toss it, please?
Oh, and by the way, I love you.

Hello. Guess what? I'm thankful for this here Kong...oh, and you, too.

What? Not what you were expecting? Thinking I made a typo in the title?
That perhaps Elizabeth sees the world through "Cardigan-colored glasses*"?

Well actually, I most certainly do/did...NOT!  See...?

screenshot source

Hint: Look at the breed (up there on his Richmond SPCA adoption profile).

Still scratching your head?

Maybe this (which happens to be attached to the door of his shelter run) will clear it up for you...

"See DNA results."

William is A12396298. Wisdom Panel is the name of the company that supplied
and performed the cheek-swab DNA test.

This is what's printed at the top of the test report:

"The Wisdom Panel® Shelter Dog™ computer algorithm performed over seven million calculations using 11 different models (from a single breed to complex combinations of breeds) to predict the most likely combination of pure and mixed breed dogs in the last 3 ancestral generations that best fit the DNA marker pattern observed in A12396298. The ancestry chart depicting the best statistical result of this analysis is shown in the picture below."

Here are William's test results:

Can you make out that Cardigan Corgi silhouette up there on the left?

OK, here's a closer look.

This is the image that transfixed me to the front of William's shelter run. 

Because my crappy camera (I left the nicer one at home) cut off part of the chart, here's the bottom line:

William is a "Cardigan Welsh Corgi (12.5%)/Chinese Shar-Pei (12.5%)/Boxer (12.5%) Mix crossed with American Staffordshire Terrier (25%) Mix." 

But that only adds up to 62.5% of his genetic makeup. That's because the other 37.5% is made up of many other breeds' DNA, but not enough of any particular one to be named with any level of confidence.

Oh, and just so you know, no one at the RSPCA told me about William or asked me to write this post; I discovered his "secret" completely by accident, strolling through the adoptable dogs after a volunteer session earlier this week. I was so taken aback by my discovery, though, that I volunteered to go back the next morning just so I could take William (and some other dogs) for a walk and some play time outside (hence that first photo up there).

So what does all this mean?

(Note: I'm assuming William's DNA sample was clean and the results are accurate.)

That I'm trying to make a case for adopting William because he's part Cardigan Welsh Corgi?
Actually, I think that would be a poor reason to adopt William. He deserves better.

To be honest, William is such a great dog (polite, happy, even-tempered, easy on the eyes, healthy, squeezable...) that I'm banking it won't be his "secret" Corgi lineage that swiftly works its way into someone's heart. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets himself adopted before you even finish reading this sentence. (Man, that would be awesome!)
;-)

What I am hoping for, however, is that the next time you (or anyone else who reads through this post) meets up with a dog who looks like William, that you might pause and reflect - even for just a moment - about all the sweet "secrets" that possibly (or likely) lie beneath that (oh, so) familiar exterior.

[ahhhhh]

*In fact, through "Cardigan-colored glasses," one could see all the colors in an 8-pack Crayola box, except for green and purple! :-) 

He's a Cardigan Welsh Cat?! Excuse me while I fall off my chair!

Not even I could have made this up. 

What do you think? Serendipity, or something else? 

Maddox (my current foster cat) is a polydactyl. He has six toes on each of his front paws, instead of the usual five. If you look closely at the inside edges of his paws (in this photo), you'll see the tips of the extra (thumb-like) digits. (He looks like he's wearing mittens. :)

I'm a polydactyl cat. See my "thumbs"?

But that's not why I'm falling off my chair.

The other night (right after I wrote last Friday's post), I decided - out of the blue - to Google "polydactyl cat," mostly because I was curious about the genetics.

Turns out, these cats (with the extra toes) have quite a history, steeped in all sorts of folklore. (I won't include all of that in this post, but you can read all about it here.)

It also turns out that nearly all of the world's population of polydactyl cats is located in the East Coast of North America (where I live) and in South West Wales.

Alright.

But, it also turns out that polydactyl cats are known by several nicknames, like, for example, mitten cats, boxing cats, Hemingway cats and Cardi-cats.

Cardi-cats?? Why the heck are they called Cardi-cats? (I thought to myself the other night.)

Um, well, turns out (a little further down the Wikipedia page) that:

"Polydactyls are very common in the Cardigan area of Wales, where they are known as 'Cardi-cats.'"

Image Source
Cardiganshire: Where the dogs are low and the cats have many toes. :)

Please note that they did not say polydactyls are common in any area of Wales, OTHER THAN CARDIGAN (in former County Cardiganshire).

Also, please note what the AKC says about the origin of the Cardigan Welsh Corgi (of which breed Jon Farleigh and Dewi belong):

"In the beginning, the Corgi came to the high country [of Wales] now known as Cardiganshire with the tall, tawny-headed Celts from Central Europe."

What are the chances? I (a self-proclaimed Cardi fool) not only got the Buster look-alike, but a relatively rare Cardi-cat, too???

OMGosh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UPDATE!!!!!

On a hunch, I just looked up the origin of the surname "Maddox."

Guess what?! According to wiki.name.com:

"The name Maddox derives from the Welsh surname 'Maddock' meaning 'son of Madoc.' The name 'Madoc' is believed to derive from the Welsh 'mad' meaning 'fortunate.'"

Maddox's name is derived from the Welsh word for "fortunate!"

Excuse me; I have to go gaze at him while he draws breath...

P.S. Starting tomorrow, I'm saving up for a trip to Wales! 

Two Different and Yet Highly Effective* Corgi Herding Styles (as demo'd by Jon Farleigh and Dewi)

I think this ought to explain it all.
Note: Yes, that's a sheep KID. Just look here and don't have a cow.

Click to enlarge.

*So we haven't actually done this with real sheep, but we saw a really articulate pig (and a Border Collie) successfully herd both ways on TV.

And a bonus:

Dewi and the sheep kid demonstrate why Welsh Corgis were bred with short legs.
Note: This diagram is NOT a joke. I'm serious.

Corgis were bred as cattle drovers (heelers/heel nippers). The short legs were life-saving in that line of work.

They're also really cute.

Have good one, friends!

So, What the Hay Does the Face Behind a Leonberger's Furry Butt Look Like?

Well, I'm about to show you..and the faces that belong to a few other butts you might have ID'd in yesterday's quiz. But first! A few random editorial notes:

• This is my 299th published post. I'm noting this here because I'll probably forget to mention the 300th post tomorrow, just like I forgot my 200th post, as if it matters. 
• I am honored to be counted among some of the most dog-butt-savvy people around the blog-o-sphere.
• I love Polldaddy.com almost as much as I love my Belgian waffle maker (and I, sadly, rarely use either).

And now, the most adorable Leonberger face I ever did see...

I really am as big as a lion.

Here's the Pembroke Welsh Corgi...

My butt drives people nuts.

Any questions? ;)

And the Doberman Pinscher...

Friends, this is my serious show face; when I get out of here, I
will roll in something stinky, goose my person and let my tongue hang out.

And the Afghan Hound...

Okay, so it's not really the face, but it's close.

Next up, the Holstein cow Great Dane...

Clearly NOT a cow OR a black and white (Harlequin) Great Dane
(that one wouldn't look at my camera), BUT definitely a Great Dane.

And the Australian Shepherd? Well, I don't have a picture of her face, but here's the face of a most adorable Bernese Mountain Dog puppy that was lying next to the Aussie...

A pillow would be nice.

This is the English Springer Spaniel...

I look nothing like an English Setter, actually. :)

And the French Bulldog...

For more Frenchie eye-candy, go look at Benny and Lily.

And not a donkey, but an Irish Wolfhound...

Oh wait! That's not a face!

I just wanted you to get a feel for how enormous he is. :)

Here you go...

A gentle-dog's dog 

And last, but not least, the mop rasta Komondor, er, actually, I don't have a face for that dog either, so please accept these photos of Jon Farleigh and some new friends, instead.

The Pembroke: Oh, yeah? That's nothing; I just saw Pepe wearing pink curlers. 

The Pit bull: The first one to blink has to do a 30-second down stay.

The Borzoi: Wait! I didn't quite get your name!

*****

Coming tomorrow: Some fun dog show words for not-really-wordless Wednesday!

My Favorite Parts: Jon Farleigh (this one's for the ladies)

Notice! You can view the most recent (2015) version of this article (including several more relevant "hottie" photos) HERE.

So here we are: The post in which I tell you about Jon Farleigh's best part (not that he only has one good part, he has many, but this one is so big, so undeniably HIM, that it has to stand alone). And that, my friends, is his glorious (if unconventional), silky soft, sometimes unruly, undeniably sexy:

Fluffy Red (and white) Coat

Still a puppy - at his fullest - ne'er a blade had touched his locks.

Its squish-ability calls to my wanton fingers (and face - yes, I bury it in there sometimes) like a siren song.

You know you want to lay hands on it.

And that white patch on his hip? [sigh]

White swirly on his thigh? Artistic brilliance.

Want to know something else?
I'm pretty sure that Jon Farleigh is to Cardigan Welsh Corgis as this guy is to people:

(via) Shaun White aka The Flying Tomato

With maybe a dash of this guy's bad boy screen persona:

(via) Josh Holloway as "Sawyer"

I've become too distracted to type anything else.

We are too hot...and our faces have returned from outer space.

Although we aren't nearly as hot as our friend, Lorenza, in Mexico, who can't even go outside for a walk, we are still too hot for us! It is approaching 96 F (36 C) in our yard, with 50% humidity. [sigh]

Is it October yet?

Jon Farleigh is daydreaming of cool green pastures in Wales, his ancestors' country of origin.

"Lucky bass-turds."

*****

On a brighter, less obscene note, remember how Jon Farleigh's and Dewi's faces recently flew in space aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour? Well early this morning in Florida, the shuttle, its crew and thousands of "virtual" smiling faces, landed safely back on Earth. It was the Endeavour's final space voyage.

Here is Dewi's certificate commemorating his face's maiden space voyage aboard the Endeavour.

(Jon Farleigh got a certificate, too.)

Hmmm. Maybe I should add "astronaut" to they boys' pages on the blog? :-)

NASA's final space shuttle flight ever is targeted for launch on July 8, 2011. Go check out NASA's Face in Space program to get your (or your pet's) face aboard!