It must be not-mutt week this week on Corgimutts.  Here’s one from deep in my family archives.  My dad snapped this of two of Corrci’s littermates the day we picked him up from his breeder in 1993.  I believe that’s Putnam Amanda’s Folly on the right, the littermate that his breeder kept as a show dog.

I was ten years old and this long-researched and long begged-for puppy was my prize for managing not to die of lyme disease the year before.  For me, it’s rescue dogs all the way now, but if you do decide to go the breeder route, this is the way to do it - not meeting a van full of designer puppies in a dark alley, not going to a pet store - instead having long talks with a breeder about what their goals are and whether you’re the right home for one of their dogs, joining their waitlist for a puppy (and if there’s no list, why are they making them?), then going to meet one or both parents, see the litter, see the home where they’re born and the yard where they learn to romp and play.   These dogs all had great lives from beginning to end, just the way they all should.