A lot of humans we meet are making wild guesses about my origins. Some say I must have greyhound blood in my veins, because my legs are so long and I am the fastest on the beach. Others think I am a mix greyhound – German Shepherd, because of my colours.
I never met my father or my mother, so I do not know what they looked like. I hear a lot of good things about greyhounds and German Shepherds, so it is nice some humans think I am a mix of both. It would mean I am a loyal friend to my human, a ferocious guarding dog and I could be a trained police dog and track down nasty criminals. With my greyhound blood I am the fastest of all and with my extremely sharp eyes and nose I can track hares and other tasty things from miles afar. That is all very nice and of course I can do it all! Although I never have gotten the chance of chasing criminals, but I am still young so maybe I will, one day.
Of course I don’t want to disappoint these humans: if they like to believe I am a mix of these breeds, that is fine with me. But the truth might be something different. You see, I am from Greece. In Greece there are some breeds the Dutch people here know nothing about. And if you take a close look, I look very much like these dogs. For instance, there is the Greek harehound, the Hellenikos Ichnilatis. It is a hunting dog, with the same ears and coloured coat I have. It is brave, outgoing, independent and intelligent and possesses the stamina and cunning necessary to face a wild boar, this website claims. That is me!!! Although I am not entirely sure how a wild boar looks, I never met one in person. Another Greek dog breed that looks like me is the Kritikos Lagonikos. It is build like a greyhound, where the Hellinikos Ichnilatis has the colours of a German Shepherd. Those two mixed together could very well be me.
Both dogs are ancient breeds, one from Greece, the other from Crete. I told you before I descend from a line of dogs that were hunting dogs for the nobility in the ancient times. I can prove it, too. There are some very old pictures of my ancestors. This is one:
It looks pretty exciting! This is another very old one:
Although I do not like the idea of someone drinking from my head, I guess this is okay since it is very old. Humans were a bit odd in those days, apparently. Do you notice the long nose? That is my nose all right:
So these dogs are most likely my ancestors. History can be very interesting, sometimes!
Dear Bubbles,
Mats and family will visit Greece next summer – we’ll say hi to all your relatives! Cool to know you have ancient roots, does it come with ancient wisdom?
Cool! If you see pictures of ancient Greek dogs, can you take some for me?
Of course… always nice to go on a treasure hunt during holidays.