(Note: If you can't see the Index panel on the left, please click here to reload my site!)
(Note: If you can't see the Index panel on the
left, please click here to reload my site!)
The Pyrenean Mountain Dog (or 'Great Pyrenees') is a wonderful, beautiful, gentle creature which, in my highly biased opinion, is the noblest of all dogs. For the last nine years, I have been privileged to share my home with a very fine and handsome Pyrenean whose pedigree name was Penpriory Xchequer but who was known to me simply as Bran. The Pyrenean is a very loyal but demanding dog with great size, strength and a sometimes wilful and headstrong 'dogonality'. It doesn't make it the ideal pet for anyone who wants an easy life and you should certainly never give a Pyrenean pup as a 'surprise gift'. The surprise may be how rapidly that cuddly pup grows into a huge dog and how effeiciently it can wreck the household in the process! If you are prepared to devote a great deal of time (and, it has to be said, quite a bit of money) to a Pyrenean, however, the rewards are beyond expression. You can find out more about this glorious breed of dog at the excellent site of the Pyrenean Mountain Dog Club of Great Britain. You will find Bran's pedigree on this site under P for Penpriory (his father was Penpriory Shades of Blue; his mother was Zalute Zyranasaurus).
Here are a a couple of photographs of my beloved, and much missed, Bran.
This is the last photograph I ever took of Bran, about a week before he died. This was his typical 'guarding the house' pose. Woe betide any squirrel that dared to rustle a leaf at him. His barks would resound for miles around!
The noble 'in profile' pose that you see in all the Pyrenean Mountain Dog books. Mostly Bran looked like a soppy ball of fluff. However, I thought I'd give him his moment of nobility in this photo!