Tuesday, December 14, 2010

musings on heredity part II


Yesterday i began to explain the history of our little Nina, the husky mix who we took from a backyard breeder before we'd even heard of them--we had no clue until we started reading about people who bred their dogs for profit--we were naive and thought it a little bizarre that she wanted to keep the little mite (and her fellow all black sibling) separate from the rest of the pack as it were. The mother was indeed gorgeous, a huge lanky husky malamute wolf hybrid mix (we were told) and the rest of the litter were all stereotypical white and silver huskies, except for one all white tiny butterball who was the mini-alpha male. i was told that he pushed all the others away when he wanted to eat and he ate first, as was evident in his size and girth. Our Nina was approximately four pounds, but this guy was double that-so chubby his stomach touched the ground. Talk about a foodie!
Anyway, here are the reasons that we do believe that Nina really might be some kind of wolf hybrid:
She hides her food and digs holes to hide it, if she thinks someone might be watching her, she will keep moving and hiding her stash until she is sure of privacy. She eats the old yucky food despite our best efforts!
She goes to the highest point of the hill and keeps watch over everything.
She howls and yips and doesn't bark, and throws her head back to do so, just like a coyote.
Her gait is more graceful and her neck longer, for instance when she walks she drops her head lower than her shoulders, much like a hunting species would, most notably a wolf, coyote, or even a tiger, and is able to watch and look around while drinking, eating, etc. its very unusual.
She is very high strung and intelligent and always on guard. She can be skittish and she slinks close to the ground as quiet as a ghost.
From far away, her eyes are yellow and glow even in the day, scaring people away. LOL.
Here she is pictured next to a pumpkin plant with her ears thrown back and posing. She is a ham at times.

No comments: