NYMag reports on the not-very-“secret” history of the new White House dog:
… The official White House announcement of Sunny’s entry into the Obama family offered only a few sparse details, including that the puppy came from Michigan and was born in June of last year. In the small world of PWD breeders, however, that was enough to signal that the dog was almost certainly born in the small town of Attica, just east of Flint, where Amy Durkin Lane operates a breeding facility, Allegiance PWDs, out of her ten-acre country home. Not only is Lane the only registered Portie breeder in Michigan listed on the PWD Club of America’s website, she confirmed to Daily Intelligencer that one of her dogs gave birth to a litter of eight puppies last June — including two females with Sunny-style curly hair, which is actually a rarity in the PWD world. (Despite Bo making the breed famous, most owners prefer the more dominant wavy do that is considered traditional.) Moreover, one of those females also has black feet — same as Sunny….
Sunny seems to have begun life as Pink — identifiable by the combination of her coat, black feet, and sex. Lane posted photos on Facebook of the puppy in its early days — including a set when Pink when she was just a week old… Why does it seem to have taken more than a year to place Pink with a buyer? Breeders say it’s possible she was being considered for a life as a show dog but developed some physical trait regarded as a defect, putting her on the pet track…
For the record, a “defect” in the show-dog world can be invisible to us outsiders — slightly buck teeth, for instance, or “incorrect” coat texture. It might even be the breeder’s ideas about AKC judges’ prejudices (maybe the judges she plans to show her dogs don’t like PWDs with curly coats). Or just an issue of “temperament”, because winning conformation dogs have to enjoy competing in the show ring, and just as plenty of pretty young women would never consider entering the Miss America contest, many dogs of impeccable breeding & temper get downgraded to “pet” because they’re insufficiently Type A.
And before anyone starts speculating about pop singers, if you look at the baby photos NYMag found, using a twist of colored rickrack is a traditional method for correctly identifying each of the squirming little nearly-identical newborns and making sure everybody’s healthy & eating enough to gain weight. Sunny’s littermates probably started life as Blue, White, Red, Green…
Because nothing is un-political in DC, the Washington Post‘s Style section found a certified Presidential-pets researcher to answer the really important questions:
What’s the political message behind Obama’s new dog Sunny?…
Let’s put it this way — and I should say, I’m standing next to my 55-pound standard poodle, whom I love dearly, as I say this — if I had a large, grassy lawn like the president does and a staff to take care of them, I would probably think about getting another dog. Sunny looks like a wonderful acquisition.
And while we’re talking about pets, io9 shares news of another celebrity-adjacent dog:
In Game of Thrones, Sansa Stark’s dire wolf Lady met an untimely end as a sacrifice to mollify the queen’s anger after Arya’s dire wolf Nymeria bit Prince Joffrey (and then ran away). In real life, however, Lady’s doing much better — especially after actress Sophie Turner adopted the Mahlek Northern Inuit Dog who played her.
Villago Delenda Est
Oh, noes, the Obamas did not adopt some random shelter dog!
IMPEACH! IMPEACH!
NotMax
Tucker Carlson.
Villago Delenda Est
OT, but von Rumsfailed is whining on Newsmax that Obama created a “leadership vacuum” that apparently is global in nature and responsible for all the unrest in Egypt.
von Rumsfailed has no facts other than those he’s pulled out of his war criminal anus for any of this, of course.
NotMax
@Villago Delenda Est
Newsmax has to go to press (as it were) with the a-holes they have, not the a-holes they wish they had.
PsiFighter37
Getting late (relatively speaking) in the Far West. Going to visit the volcanoes tomorrow.
Only 2 more days in Hawaii…wish I had more time. Sigh
M.C. Simon Milligan
Portuguese water dogs are the third best thing to come out of Portugal. Jose Mourinho is second. First, of course, is the road to Spain.
Patricia Kayden
One of those Rightwing blogs emphasized that President Obama has no white dogs (story was linked at JMG). Had to snort out loud. I guess I’m racist too since neither of my dogs are white.
WereBear
I was thrilled at this news. Those Obama daughters know how to work leverage, don’t they?
Dad had promised them a puppy if they moved to the White House. Another term… another puppy!
Bo had been returned to the breeder. So, like Sunny, RESCUE.
Elizabelle
beautiful google doodle today
James E. Powell
@M.C. Simon Milligan:
Number one is port wine.
SiubhanDuinne
Test
SiubhanDuinne
Hmmm, how strange.
rikyrah
Sunny is cute
cvstoner
So, I have to wonder: who chose the dog? Did Obama take the kids around and let them choose their companion, or was the dog selected for them through some carefully vetted process designed for maximum whatever?
JCT
Our younger beagle is a “failed” show dog – my guess is for extreme naughtiness . We had originally rescued a beagle for my young son and he loved that dog- slept with her every night, raced through his homework to play with her, etc. But we had to put her down 4 months after her adoption because she had metastatic mammary tumors. My boy was devastated (he had been asking for a dog for 2 years). A friend knew the breeder and the naughty show dog came from long-lived stock so we broke our “only rescue” rules trying to avoid another bad outcome for my boy.
It’s 11 years later- the beagle is as naughty as the day we got her and to the “amusement” of his girlfriend, my now college-age son has a pic of himself with his beagle pal on the home screen of his phone. We still hold the phone up to her ear when he calls. Sometimes she “roos” when she hears his voice. We returned to rescue only, but never regretted our failed show dog.
Mino
May I say this author is either experienced in subject or really did the homework. This is a reasonably accurate report.
ruviana
@M.C. Simon Milligan: Some pretty awesome food, drink, and music come out of Portugal too. Just sayin’.
Citizen_X
@Villago Delenda Est:
Oh no, a cradle of world civilization where the museums are not being looted! Rumsfeld would never stand for that!
Tone In DC
@NotMax:
GROAN.
Rummy just needs some more wingnut gravy train cash. That stock he has in the company that owns Tamiflu (as much as $25 million worth) ain’t gonna cut it, dammit. That second yacht for him to water ski behind ain’t gonna buy itself.
gogol's wife
This is an interesting, informative post. Sorry I missed it by sleeping at night.
Cygil
Can you believe the journalistic resources that were spent on this non-fucking-story? Seriously, by blogging about this, you are only helping them.
In the near future, Internet news will be 50% KimParisLindsayKatyGaga watch, and 50% white house fucking dog stories. And it will be the vapid public feeding at the trough. As Josef Hitler Goebbels once said, “Dude, I can’t believe it, the public actually wants to be stupified. I don’t need to distract them, they distract themselves.”
Chaoticgnome
Salon is in on it too