Books Bygone

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

A bi-laterally asymmetrical mutt

We mammals are all bi-laterally asymmetrical, each in our own special way.
Rocky is no different than the rest of us. His right eyelashes are black; his left, white. When you look at Rocky's face in this and other photos, do you have a tendency to look more at one than the other eye? Is it the background? What if the brindle more or less surrounded his left eye?

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I regret that I did not begin to measure Rocky as soon as he joined our family. By measuring his ear-to-tail length over time, I would have been better able to predict his final size. Under near-optimal conditions, the trajectory of mammalian growth can be described and predicted. If I'd measured him, I'd know where he is in time (now) on his little trajectory. 

Based on observation alone, I don't think Rocky is going to achieve the stature of a pure Staffordshire Terrier. 

Rocky is a barreled-chested bi-laterally asymmetrical mutt. 


2 comments:

  1. Well...your camera angle is a bit distorting...but his body looks very long for the approximate size I've seen in other photos you've taken.

    Do you know what the other half is? Other than "traveling salesman"?

    We had one mutt once upon a time - named "Spot". My first dog. Her mother was a Labrador. Her father "went over a 6 foot fence to get to her". That's all we knew! Looked to me like he might have been part Dal...but who knows!

    Of course, the other option is that the owner of the mother didn't want to admit that they had been negligent and every male in the neighborhood had bred her. We had one of those once as well. Left our female with hubby's parents. I told them I thought she might be coming into heat...but MIL said...oh no...she's too young. (she was 7 months). MIL came home from shopping to find said female down the block in flagrante delicti and a line of waiting males.

    At nine months, she had nine puppies - all colors and looks. I think one or two were actually purebred (they had a same breed old male). They kept one of them and gave the rest away. No spotted ones in the litter, though. Guess MIL came home too early for that!

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  2. The photo is intentionally distorted-- at least as "intentionally" as I am capable of! But it does give some approximate idea of his overall size. In a botched photo during the same shoot (LOL) his chin was resting on my leg, which is on the seat of the chair (left hand corner in the photo), which is a standard height desk chair.

    He's a little fellow with very broad shoulders.

    Your dog stories tickled me.

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