Dog Name of the Week - Mopsey

This week we look at the dog name:

Mopsey

Mopsey was one of George Washington's favorite Hound Dogs.

He had over 10 of them as well as other dog breeds.

Unfortunately because of the time, few notes were left about Mopsey other than brief mentions in several of his journals. Mopsey and her brothers and sisters were often noted.

Picture: George Washington out hunting with his hounds

Scannon - A Black Newfoundland

Highlighted this week is the dog name:

Scannon

This may or may not have been the name of Meriwether Lewis's black Newfoundland that went with him on the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific.

Interestingly enough, for many years, scholars believed the Newfoundland's name was Scannon, until 1984, when Donald Jackson (one of the pre-eminent Lewis and Clark historians) noticed a stream in one of Clark's maps clearly designated as "Seaman's Creek."

He went back to the original journals, studied the handwriting, and determined that what previous editors had believed was "Scannon" was instead "Seaman." (Which for a Newfoundland makes more sense than Scannon.)

Seaman is not mentioned in the journals after July 15, 1806, on the return trip, when Lewis was at the Great Falls and notes that his dog was being plagued by mosquitoes.

So, from the written record, we can't say for sure what happened to him. But it is firmly believed by most expedition scholars that Seaman made it back to St. Louis with the rest of the Corps of Discovery. Why? Because it is inconceivable that the dog's death, disappearance, or abandonment would have gone unremarked in the journals of Lewis, Clark, or any of the other men.

Information from pbs.org

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Balto The Siberian Husky

The dog name I chose to highlight this week is:

Balto

Balto was a black, long-haired Siberian Husky that led Gunnar Kasson's Dog team in February 1925. Balto led the dog team through a blizzard to reach Nome, Alaska with antitoxin serum for the Diphtheria epidemic that was raging there.

A statue to Balto can still be found today in New York City's Central Park.

Picture Credit: Celebrated sled dog Balto with Gunnar Kaasen. (Photo: Brown Brothers.) Norwegian immigrant Gunnar Kaasen was the musher on the dog team that successfully delivered diphtheria antitoxin to Nome, Alaska in 1925. Lead dog for that final leg of the 600-mile trip was the indomitable Balto.

Queen Victoria's Dog Dash

The dog name I chose to highlight this week is:

Dash

Queen Victoria was a dog lover and Dash was her prized Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Dash was not one of the short-nosed varieties in vogue at the time.

The Queen's diary reveals that the same day in 1837 that she was crowned, she came home to give Dash a bath.

Queen Victoria's mother commissioned Edwin Landseer (1802-1873) to paint a portrait of Dash as a present for her seventeenth birthday.

Throughout her lifetime, Queen Victoria commissioned many dog portraits. Although artwork featuring dogs goes back centuries before her time, her influence significantly increased the popularity of dog art, especially portraits of pet dogs.

Prior to Queen Victoria’s time, dogs in paintings had primarily been represented in sporting scenes.

Picture Credit: Sir Edward Landseer (1802-1873), Queen Victoria's Dog, "Dash";