On second thought...

...I think Rosie's DNA test is right.

Check out these three puppies I found on the Web--they're Lab/harrier mix.

It's uncanny. They look exactly like Rosie!  So now I have to read up on harriers. The only thing I know about harriers is that they look a lot like beagles, only bigger. Wikipedia says: "The harrier is cheerful, sweet-tempered, tolerant of people, and excellent with children. This pack dog is good with other dogs. ... It prefers life in a pack with people or dogs or both."

This sounds like Rosie, all right. I think her DNA test is right on the money. I still have my doubts about Riley's, though this afternoon when we were walking around the lake someone stopped and petted Riley and said, "Is this a Border? I see Border in him."

Believe it or not

This morning, just after 7 a.m., my email box made that little PING that means new message. It was Rosie's DNA results.

Now I have to decide whether or not to believe these two tests, or whether to think, as one friend said, that I've been had.

I am so confused.  If Riley's results seemed more suited to Boscoe--whose DNA, of course, we did not submit--Rosie's seem more like they belong to Riley.

There was no mention of cattle dog or Aussie, although her mother, apparently, is 25 percent Australian koolie. She is also harrier, Ibizan (and she does have a "springy trot," as Ibizans are supposed to have), and then, in smaller doses, Akita, beagle, and sheepdog.

But the father? Going all the way back, father, father's father, father's father's father....Lab. Lab. Lab. Lab. Lab. As far as the eye can see.

Now I just have to figure out whether or not to believe any of this.  I guess it doesn't matter--she's sweet and fairly obedient and eager to please and healthy and happy. We'll never breed her or show her (obviously), and so lineage doesn't really matter.  We are merely curious.

And if nothing else, getting the results gives me a great excuse to post a whole bunch of new pictures of Miss Winsome. Enjoy.