Susan Kay Jones, age 8, Richmond, VA

 Was the dog ever a fierce beast?

It seems only fair to let a dog have his say about his own ancestors. So Andy just made notes while his own Skippy told about the doggy history he had learned as a puppy. Here is the story as Skippy told it:

Our 'dog ancestors go back millions of years. At first they were flat footed. Then they learned to run on their toes. They became the swift ones, slim and lean. They were wonderful hunters. Like the cats, they had the kind of teeth for meat‑eating. See my teeth? Well, even the old time dogs had teeth like that. They couldn't chew grass or eat hay.

So they had to hunt and live on the flesh of other animals. Who says they were wild or fierce? They were just hungry. They never killed for fun and our ancestors were not related to the wolves or the jackels. Though it may be that all the dog‑like animals had a common ancestor in the dim, distant past. But this was before the dawn of dog history.

Dogs were getting along very well when a wonderful thing happened. The human family came to live in the world. For a long time our ancestors watched and admired mankind from a distance. We followed them as they hunted and saw how smart they were, We hung around their camp fires and drooled over the smell of their cooking. We adored them for a long time before we came to be friends.

Gradually we worked out a deal. We could run faster, see better, hear better and smell better than humans. They let us help them on their wonderful hunting trips. After the hunt, they tossed us chunks of delicious cooked meat. We had a partnership and were learning to be friends. But that; took a long time. Our ancestors were sharing village life with humans 8,000 years ago.

Sometimes the men became shepherds. We helped them tend their gentle sheep. We couldn't have been very bloodthirsty to be trusted with that job,, now could we? Gradually men sorted us out and picked the best of us for certain jobs,

Today there are some 150 different breeds of dog in the world That is more breeds than any domestic animal.

I myself am a mut dog of no special breed. Most dogs are mixed breeds like me. I am not sensitive about it and enjoy attending the dog shows where the pure bred dogs go through their paces.  You see, their history and their ancestors are just the same as mine. I am just one of 20 million dogs in North America happy to be adopted by human beings.

Andy tells me that our cats want to say their piece tomorrow. I agree with their ideas of history except on one point. They will tell you that cats, not dogs, were man’s first pets. Don’t believe a word of it. Any human knows that no creature can love him more than his own dog ‑ and things have been that way since the very beginning.