Down the rabbit hole this morning…

I was thinking about hearing that it was politically incorrect to call a dog a “mutt”. The current proper adjective is mixed-breed. How silly. Which dog was insulted? Who made this decision? We have had many wonderful dogs over the years and they were happy to be called mutts as far as we knew.

I was never a fan of calling a mixed-breed dog a “Heinz 57”. I get the gist of it, but the genesis of the “57” could have been 57 types of pickles.
 

One very genteel definition of a mutt is a dog that does not belong to one officially recognized breed and is not the result of intentional breeding. A mongrel is also a word for a dog of mixed parentage, but just doesn’t sound as sweet as “mutt”. The dictionary says a mongrel is a dog of indeterminate breed. Not in 2020. Today it is possible to have a DNA test to prove which breeds make up our particular pooch.

3 things I learned that were new to me:

Any animal or plant can be a mongrel – resulting from the crossing of different breeds or varieties

A cat can be a mutt-ish. It not actually called a mutt cat. Mixed breed cats are referred to DSH; a domestic breed cat with shorthair.

It’s not very common, but cats can actually be allergic to dogs. Seriously. I have friends who are allergic to dogs and some who are allergic to cats.  Sure turns the conversation about not bringing my dog to a friend’s house on its head. “Sorry, but my cat has a dog allergy.”