Nice Magazine Art, If You Can Get It

I was about to pull out from work, when I did a last-minute check of my email box and found a note from someone "Re: Your article on inbreeding."

My article on inbreeding? I popped open the email and was reminded that I had green lighted a dog publication in the U.K. to reprint a 2006 post from this blog entitled "Inbred Thinking."

I had offered to rewrite it a bit if they wanted, but they said they were fine with it as it was, and so I gave them permission to go ahead. Since no new work was involved, and the original blog post had been written in 2006, the whole thing barely registered on the radar. I had forgotten about it.

So, imagine my surprise to pop open the link and see the art!

Nice stuff, eh? At least I think so. I was pretty pleased.

As I told the fellow from the magazine in an email back, "It's like dog porn, and I mean that in the nicest, most complimentary way possible."

And I really do.

Anyone who is nice enough (and brave enough!) to use anything I write about dogs in a popular magazine gets a plug from me, so here goes: K-9 Magazine is "the UK's leading lifestyle magazine for dog lovers," and the annual online subscription is only £10.00.

A quick glance through the online issue found a very interesting-looking article on the origins of working dogs, with an emphasis on coursing breeds (I'm gonna read that tomorrow!), and a glance at the collected covers suggests a simple, commercial concept: Very pretty women holding their dogs. Brilliant!

Which reminds me of a story -- sadly, a true one.

Some years back, I was working a "fun day" function with the dogs, and I saw a woman walking by with a Border Terrier and a Scottish Deerhound in tow.

Ah! That must be G____ I thought -- an online friend whom I had never actually met, as we live in different parts of this vast and cluttered country. I would try to introduce myself a bit later on if I could remember.

But of course I never did, as the time escaped from me (again).

Anyway, the next week, I zapped the woman a short email, noting I had just missed her at the Border Terrier fun day.

I had? Not a chance, she said, as she was still in Wisconsin. What did the woman look like that I had seen in Virginia?

And, to tell the truth, I could not remember! I could, however, describe the Border Terrier and the Deerhound perfectly.

And no, I am not gay. But thanks for asking.

It's just that I am pretty sure the woman in question did not look like these.

I think I would have noticed.


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