WOOPS!

So for the year and 1/2 that we have had Sirius, we've always been suspicious as to whether or not he was a 100% pureblood JRT. Since we got him from someone who had gotten him from someone else etc., he came with no papers. As he grew we noticed little features here and there that just didn't quite mesh with the classic JRT standards... like his semi-pricked ears, his face shape (long and pointy, rather than short and blunt) and how much thicker his coat is compared to other JRT's we know. For a long time we just dismissed it to be little quirks that just meant he wouldn't make for much of a show dog, until a few days ago... Lucy, our little neighbor is a Rat Terrier, the breed that everyone always confused Sirius with. Time and time again we would emphatically assure the person that they were mistaken and that he was a Jack Russell, NOT a Rat. Sure they look similar, but Sirius could not possibly be a Rattie b/c his ears weren't fully pricked (meaning up all the time) so no, definitely not a Rat. Well, Lucy has been coming over to play a lot and I have recently become good pals with her and as we've been spending time playing together, I started realizing... gee, Sirius is looking more and more like a Rat to me every day. Last night we had to go to PetCo ("Where the pets go!") to get a new PooperScooper and I saw this book on Rat Terriers... Intrigued, I flipped through it and to my horror, saw picture after picture, after picture of what could have easily been mistaken to be my Sirius! What the??? So I turned to the Standards section and lo and behold... Ratties have 3 kinds of ears: button (flopped down like a JRT), pricked (100% erect all the time) and semi-pricked( 1/2 up 1/2 down)!!! We got the book and spent much of last night reading about this breed and coming to the realization that it explains all of Sirius's non-JRT excentricities!!! Finally, it makes sense! So yeah... we stand corrected... our Sirius is most definitely a Rattie.

Behold, the Rat Terrier. (Picture brought to you by Wikipedia) Spitting image of Sirius, huh? It only took us 18 months, sheesh...