Bob, tell them what they've won!

The Human Male showed me a funny post yesterday from Atlantic blogger Andrew Sullivan. I’ve mentioned him before—he had that wonderful post a few months ago regarding old beagles. Andrew’s a beagle man, and they recently did the doggie DNA test on their rescued beagle-basset hound mix Eddy for fun.

It ends up that “mix” bit doesn’t contain any beagle. At all.

Eddy is a basset hound, bloodhound, and chinook mix. I’ve never even heard of a chinook—but after seeing a picture, you can see the chinook in her.

This article cracked me up—especially the part about them being a bit shocked and needing time to grasp it, as well as the apology for “leading people on for several years” that he owned a beagle. I welled up a bit, I was laughing so hard. Of course, readers started sending him pictures of and comments about their chinooks—they really do exist! Maybe he opened up his dog-loving fan base a little.

I’m fascinated by the doggie DNA tests, and I’d love to get Alice done. I’m pretty sure she’s a puggle, but you never know—she may be part chinook, too (a chinuggle?). At the same time, The Human Male said he was considering getting the test done as one of my Christmas presents this year, and I tweaked a little. I’d love to know for sure, but at the same time… I don’t want to know.

Obviously nothing would change, Alice would still be the same old Alice, but have you ever learned something that was totally different than what you’d been thinking for years and it rocks your world a little? For example, a few years ago I had an ultrasound done and was shocked to learn that I have a completely harmless congenital malformation called a horseshoe kidney. Obviously I've been walking around my whole life (and then some) with kidneys that look different than what they teach you in school, but can I tell you how betrayed I felt? It was like my body’d been lying to me literally forever! I was quite upset for several weeks. And when I thought of getting Alice tested came up, I had that feeling again-- like, would life be improved or worsened by knowing what breeds Alice really is?

I don’t know which way I’ll go eventually, but I know this for sure: I do love my dog, be her a puggle or a chinuggle.