So what, you may ask, is a Vizsla? Well, in a word, posh! I stole this introduction from the web site of the Hungarian Vizsla Society http://www.vizsla.org.uk/history.htm:
The Vizsla belongs in dogdom's aristocracy; he shows it in dignified bearing and proves it in recorded history. While the Vizsla is new to the Western World it is perhaps the oldest bred of the great European Vorstehund group of shorthaired pointing and retrieving dogs. The Vizsla achieved recognition as a breed centuries ago. However, the breed was never popularized in an American sense, but was rather restricted to the nobility. There is a long though unheralded history behind this unusual breed. Primitive carvings in stone in the Carpathian regions - estimated 1,000 years old - show the Magyar hunter, his falcon and his Vizsla. The Magyar Vizslas (Hungarian Pointers) honor their nomadic masters who roamed the Carpathian plains and valleys ten centuries ago. Herdsmen and hunters, these early Hungarians began the development of companion-hunting dogs to find, point, and retrieve native game, and to track wounded large game. Successive generations continued the development of the breed and by the Thirteenth Century the beautiful golden Vizsla was a distinct breed, recognized and prized as a companion-field dog...
So there!
On the web site, there’s a picture of some of my cousins, taken by Trevor White. This picture’s appeared on the BBC, apparently. I hope Mr White doesn’t mind if I borrow it.
I’m sure you can see the uncanny resemblance.
As for the other part of my legacy—the Lurcher bit—well, the news on that is not so good. Lurcher means thief, apparently. Moi, une voleur! Surely not. (You can tell my French is coming on.) I’m sure there’s some mistake. I’ll have to do more research. And now I have to learn Hungarian!
No comments:
Post a Comment