“Everything’s Merrier with a Terrier”

If you know a terrier, you probably also know they’re a breed apart. They’re known for their tenacity, high energy, and willfulness. My Godpuppy is a terrier, as is my only “nephew” (or, as my sister sometimes calls him, a real “terror-ier”).

So I had to laugh this week while reading Jane Smiley’s A Year at the Races. Smiley engaged an animal communicator to ask her two dogs—a Great Dane and a Jack Russell Terrier—why they let rip a furious stream of barking and alarming craziness every time any other dogs were walked past their farm.

The Dane gave a detailed reply explaining his reasoning.

The Terrier, on the other hand, said, “I don’t know, it just happens.”

Yup. What Terriers lack in forethought and introspection they more than make up for in high-octane action.

[Pic by Debby Burchett of the newly named Tyler, a Schnauzer-Terrier mix recently adopted by artist Moira McLaughlin. Read their harrowing-turned-happy-ending tale on Dog Art Today.]