March 12, 2018

White Dog nodded. "We all knew there was something special about CA Stormer. He was a dog of mystery right up to the end.

We understood from the first day that Stormer was not an American Eskimo...at least not fully. Eskies we know very well and Stormer had a subtly different body confirmation and a personality that was more intense than any Eskie we ever had before. It mattered not a whit except that we learned his oddities to better love and include him and to make him feel safely comfortable.

But in the back of his head Steve always wondered about his Best Bud's heritage...runs in Steve's family. His mother was a avid genealogist.

When Stormer began his health decline we discussed doing one of those tests to track his ancestry but it was one of those things that somehow never made it to the top of the "to do" list.

And then our boy asked for release but with a caveat for Steve. Steve must do the DNA test so that he would finally have his question answered. Stormer knew it would help bring closure for his dad and that the test would not hurt...it was simply a mouth swab.

Steve sent the samples off the day Stormer crossed the Rainbow Bridge. When he did the swab, Steve sat holding his boy for a long time and they joked about what might be revealed. He made Steve laugh when he suggested that maybe he was not even a dog, but rather, a chimera.

The test results came back today. Stormer was NOT a chimera but was a "designer dog," a perfect 50-50 pairing of American Eskimo and Siba Inu. Who would have even guessed that, I wondered.

Now that the light has been turned on, I can see clearly the curl of the tail, the chestiness, and the broader face from his Shiba Inu side...a breed I had never even thought of before. And in reading more, Stormer presented some of the characteristic quirks of the breed.

One thing was totally validated, that our boy, CA Stormer, was not ordinary by any means. And that no matter what his genes indicated he is forever a beloved member of the White Dog Army.