My Ants' Estors

Ya know, mama spends so much time with her genealogy blog The Oracle of OMcHodoy and her Ancestral Lore blog Orations of OMcHodoy that I finally got curious. She told me that she uses her blogs to find her ants estors, whatever that means. She says it means she’s trying to find out the people from whom she de-sends. I usually don’t much care what others do, so much as it doesn’t affect me. But I just had to give this jeanie alogee thing a try. So here’s my first attempt at tracing my pack.

Mama was told that I am a Pomeranian and Cocker Spaniel mix. Let’s take a look at that.

First let’s take a look at the Pomeranian, since mama says it’s easy to see the Pom in me, with my curly tail and incredibly springy feet. My eyes, too, but definitely not the ears.

Picture on the left courtesy of: http://www.kennels.co.uk/images/T.Pomeranian.jpg

According to Dog Breed Info (www.dogbreedinfo.com), this part of me originated in the Prussian region of Pomerania (gee, what a concept…Pomeranians hailed from Pomerania). There was a dog breed there known as the Spitz, and apparently the Pomeranian de-sended from that that breed. Now just how they make one "pure-bred" dog from another I will never understand, but I digress.

Did you know that Marie Antoinette and Mozart once owned Poms? So did Queen Victoria!

Dog Breed Info also says that Pomeranians are smart and would make good circus animals. Hmmph. You never hear humans say “oh he’s a smart guy, he’d be great as a circus performer”.

Now, on to the Cocker Spaniel. Mama says it’s hard for her to see the Cocker in me; sometimes she’s not so sure. But a few times as we were leaving Petsmart (mama loves that store; I hate it, though I do like trying to creep under the racks of dog food for kibble) she’s heard people comment without talking to mama “Look a Cocker Spaniel mix”. Hmmm. Let’s investigate.

This is what an American Cocker Spaniel looks like with me next to her:

Now, in most pictures mama has seen of American Cockers, mama doesn’t see any real resemblance. But she kind of does in this picture, taken from http://www.greatdogsite.com/admin/uploaded_files/
thumbnails/american_cocker_spaniel368x_1190665991490.jpg here. Mama can see a little similarity in the fur on the legs. Do you?

Here’s a little bit about the American Cocker Spaniel. Dog Breed Info says these dogs de-send from the English Cocker Spaniel, which I’ll talk about next. Both Cockers were once used to flush out woodcock birds, which is how they got their names. Mama says that may be why I can creep along on my tummy with my legs off to the side as I move towards kibble under the food racks at Petsmart. One of these days she’ll get a picture of me doing that. She says it’s funny.

Now here is a picture of the English Cocker Spaniel and me:

http://www.petplanet.co.uk/

Now mama can see some similarities when she looks at a picture of the English Cocker. She says the fur on my back grows in a similar pattern. While my head is thinner, the flatness along the nose line and forehead is somewhat similar. Also the lines along the rear upper leg and the hips are similar to the English Cocker, though you can't see it in this picture of me.

The descriptions of both Cockers identify this breed as fun, loving, and great with kids. Well, I’m okay with kids now, but I used to be terrified of them. But I don’t play with them, or anyone else, really. I sometimes play fetch with mama, but not for long and only when *I* want to. Mama says that’s because the Pomeranian in me shows the stubborn streak, and, moreover, she says I wasn’t socialized well when I was a puppy. I was reportedly kept in a crate most of the time and never learned to play or not be afraid of others until I was taken out of that place.

Well, that’s my surmised story, and I’m sticking to it. I know I’ll probably never know who my true ants-estors are, but perhaps I’ve reconciled my packs. What do you think? Do you see Pomeranian and Cocker Spaniel in me? Mama says she could make The Genetic Genealogist proud by mentioning that there are Doggie DNA tests that can determine the breeds of mixed dogs, but mama says it really makes no difference. She loves me just the way I am.

Mama's Second Attempt

At barbecuing looked like this:

Doesn't that look good? She bought this kabob rack thing and thought she'd try it out. The first problem was in figuring out how to turn the skewers and have the food turn with them. Instead, mama would turn the skewers but the food would stay put. Lifting the handle end of the skewers up a bit and then turning them helped a little bit, but she wound up just dumping all the food into a pan and cooking them that way.

The good news was that mama remembered to oil the grill grate first, so it was much easier to clean up. The bad news? Mama hated the food. It was just sirloin, squash, zucchini and red pepper marinated in a soy sauce mix with spices, but mama said the meat ended up more medium than well-done (mama wants her meat DEAD), and there was way too much soy sauce in the marinade, though she only used half of what the recipe called for! Oh well, I told her, you don't know if you don't try. Secretly I was hoping she'd give it to me since she didn't like it, but she didn't. In fact, after all was said and done, she moved the fencing to a new place she wants to keep me out of:

On another note, we got a nasty storm last night. Mama caught some pictures of it, including pics of a double rainbow on the edge of the storm right before it hit our house. If you look closely (realllly closely) at the first picture, you can see both rainbows. The second picture shows the rain pouring down just north of our house. At one point during the storm, it was pouring in our back yard and barely sprinkling in the front yard!

Mama's First Attempt

At barbecuing something other than hamburgers or hot dogs:
Pork chops marinated in soy sauce with lemon juice and garlic, with pepper mix marinated in olive oil and garlic (she forgot the dill weed). Overall not a bad first try, but she learned a couple of things:

1. Next time she won't forget to oil the grate first.

2. Next time she'll move the chops to one side and put the veggies on the other side, over direct heat.

3. Next time she'll put the veggies on at the same time as the pork chops.

Live and learn. it sure smelled good! And no, I didn't get ANY. I even got yelled at for licking the ground under the grill when all was said and done!

MORE New Toys!

This is me playing with a new toy mama bought for me today called the Kong Wubber. Inside a heavy canvas type cover is a squeaky toy!

This is the Kong Wubber toy after about two minutes in my mouth.
This is me sitting nicely while mama unwraps the next new toy she bought for me. She said something about it being a FOOD STUFFABLE toy. I LOVE those!

This is a video of me PLAYING with the new FOOD STUFFABLE toy! Mama says it's a little bit long, but she loves the look of exasperation I give at the end!

Some of Mama's Favorite Pictures

Are of me lying down and/or sleeping.

Or of me just waking up.