Or mixed breeds, or "blends" as Mike Arms, president of Helen Woodward Animal Center in San Diego likes to call us. Whatever name you choose, there sure are a lot of us. And it seems, unfortunately, that somehow we seem to end up in animal shelters. Go figure. According to statistics from www.muttigrees.org, an organization formed to help us mutts, "there are 50 million mixed breed dogs in the U.S. today..., and three out of every four shelter dogs are mixed breeds." Yikes!
Now, we want this to be perfectly clear: we have nothing against purebred dogs. In fact, some of our best friends are purebreds (hehehe). And Parental Unit has always had purebred dogs in the past-until I came along, that is. Of course, the idea these days is to get your purebred pooches from either rescue groups or responsible breeders, of which there are many. So, we love you our purebred friends!
But there's another interesting angle to the story: it seems that, as the dogs go, so goes the country. In an article in yesterday's New York Times, titled: "Black? White? Asian? More Young Americans Choose All of the Above", we learned that "blends" are all the rage among humans too! According to this article, "The crop of students moving through college right now includes the largest group of mixed race people ever to come of age in the United States, and they are only the vanguard: the country is in the midst of a demographic shift driven by immigration and intermarriage." Read the full article here: www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/us/30mixed.html.
Now we happen to think this is a good thing. We love the idea of all sorts of ethnicities, religions, races (and dog breeds) uniting in marriage, procreation and whatever else they'd like to unite in. And it's high time that humans started emulating us dogs, which I'm sure is what's happening. I mean, we've been listening to you folks for centuries-the tables are finally turned!
And speaking of mutts, is this a face to love, or what?
Photo of me by www.rachellaurenphotography.com
Now, we want this to be perfectly clear: we have nothing against purebred dogs. In fact, some of our best friends are purebreds (hehehe). And Parental Unit has always had purebred dogs in the past-until I came along, that is. Of course, the idea these days is to get your purebred pooches from either rescue groups or responsible breeders, of which there are many. So, we love you our purebred friends!
But there's another interesting angle to the story: it seems that, as the dogs go, so goes the country. In an article in yesterday's New York Times, titled: "Black? White? Asian? More Young Americans Choose All of the Above", we learned that "blends" are all the rage among humans too! According to this article, "The crop of students moving through college right now includes the largest group of mixed race people ever to come of age in the United States, and they are only the vanguard: the country is in the midst of a demographic shift driven by immigration and intermarriage." Read the full article here: www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/us/30mixed.html.
Now we happen to think this is a good thing. We love the idea of all sorts of ethnicities, religions, races (and dog breeds) uniting in marriage, procreation and whatever else they'd like to unite in. And it's high time that humans started emulating us dogs, which I'm sure is what's happening. I mean, we've been listening to you folks for centuries-the tables are finally turned!
And speaking of mutts, is this a face to love, or what?
Tell us what you think-we'd love to hear from ya!
