Fellow dabblers in the Genealogy of the Fantastic--

I was going about my business in the archives of the Historical and Genealogical Museum of Brazoria County, Texas, straightening the shelves and ensuring that the books and manuscripts were in good enough shape for the public to go through them (and ruin them themselves), when my eye was drawn to a set of family albums of obvious age that I had never noticed before. Three of the albums were of photographs too faded to be distinct, but one of them had a new leather-bound diary hidden inside it. The diary, written in a cramped and sometimes illegible script, is a treasure trove of information about the Wold Newton family, and my only regret is that many of the pages are missing from it, as some pages containing potentially explosive information are obviously absent. Combined with what is commonly known about the more famous members of the Wold Newton family, some new linkages and associations may be made.

I have deduced the identity of the researcher who wrote this diary and assembled the photo-albums, but for obvious reasons I cannot reveal who he is. For ease of use I will refer to him as "MN."

The story of these figures begins, as so many others do, with an unpleasant surprise. An awful screaming comes across the sky. There is a massive flash of light, multiple waves of heat are felt, the ears are assaulted by the sound of something very large hitting the ground at a high speed. The lives of eighteen men and women, and countless others to come, are changed forever.

It is England, in 1795, in the Wolds, the countryside in Britain's North Central Territory. Not far away is the town of Wold Newton, an average English village. Riding near—too near—the meteor's explosion are eighteen men and women in two coaches. Undoubtedly they were shocked, perhaps stunned, by the explosion, by the awful combination of heat and noise and the strange prickling feeling crawling across their exposed skin.

This is all well known and documented, by Mr. P. J. Farmer among others. Scant attention has been given, however, to another witness to the meteor's sudden landing. Pull back from the meteor's crater, in the opposite direction from the coaches. Pull back to the trees on the far ridge, and look down. There, crouched at the base of the tallest oak, is a dog. She's an enormous bitch pointer the size of liver and from her springs a lineage to match that of the human witnesses to the Wold Newton meteor strike, one that would do any mother proud. She does not cower and whine in response to the explosion; she growls, showing bravery rather than fear. Our story begins with the meteor, and with her.

Following the explosion she left the area and trotted five miles to the tiny hamlet of Grimmerton, halfway between Thwing and Foxholes. (Go here for a map of the area) Passing through Grimmerton, she returned to her home, the farm of "Wuthering Heights," where she lived with her master, one James Heathcliff. Heathcliff did not treat her well, but did grant her the freedom to wander and visit—and mate—with who she would. At the time of her exposure to the radiation of the Wold Newton meteor, she was pregnant.

This dog, dubbed "Juno" (1790-1809?) by a visitor to Wuthering Heights, gave birth later in the year to a litter of mixed-breed pups; their father was a mixed-breed mongrel. The only similarity they shared was a series of notable and vivid white-striped fur on its chest and back.¹

Following the death of Heathcliff in 1801 Juno and her pups disappear from sight; no records were kept of the animals of the Heights after the the sale of the farm. There are no accounts in either the local folklore or the Leeds and Yorkshire Mercury of any dogs performing any extraordinary acts. However, there is a record of an adult male golden retriever, hereafter referred to as "A," traveling on a ship from bound from Hull in 1863. (A had a brother who remained in England; his history and descendants will be covered in the follow-up to this article) The retriever, of unusual size, bore the white stripe of Juno and showed an inordinate amount of intelligence. It quickly befriended the ship's owner and only passenger, one Rhett Butler. The ship put in at New Orleans, where A disembarked and made his home.

A lived the life of an average dog in New Orleans for three years, but some nameless urge drove him West. By 1868 he was in Sonora, Texas, where he was adopted by one Travis Coates, the fourteen-year-old son of a Confederate soldier. A endeared himself to the family and grew to love them, and them him. He displayed this by saving their lives on several occasions, showing an above-average intelligence, and saved all of their lives by engaging and killing a rabid wolf, whose bite in turn killed him. A was buried with great sorrow by the Coates, who spread the word of A's feats far and wide. A reporter for the San Antonio Daily Herald heard tell of the story and wrote it up for the Daily Herald's January 15 issue. Fred Gibson drew on this account to write his novel, in which he passed on the name that the Coates family gave A: Old Yeller.

A had sired a litter on a female collie while in New Orleans in 1863. In 1865 A's oldest male pup, B, was adopted by a family of settlers moving west to settle land in the aftermath of the Civil War. In 1871 B, now living on a ranch in western Kansas and thoroughly ordinary, sired a litter on a female collie. The product of that union, a female, C, left the ranch and made her way West. In 1880 C sired a litter on a collie. C's youngest pup, a female collie, was adopted by Jonathan Harvey, an older prospector living in the Colorado Rockies. Harvey dubbed the pup "Shep," and the pair wandered the Rockies, looking for gold, Shep displaying her extraordinary intelligence in helping Harvey.

Unfortunately, after several years of mining Harvey discovered a hidden lode in a remote section of the Rockies, only to be betrayed and killed by his new partner, Lin Taylor. Shep attempted to reveal Taylor's murderous nature but was poisoned by Taylor. Shep was nursed back to health by local Uté, and Shep, after saving the life of Tommy Blake (the son of Harvey's former partner), lured Taylor into a trap and killed him.

After this incident Shep disappears from view. However, two years earlier, in 1885, Shep had mated with a St. Bernard, and Shep gave birth to a litter of one–Shep's only offspring, as far as MN can find. Shep and Harvey moved on after she gave birth, abandoning the male puppie. (Undoubtedly Shep objected to this). The puppie, predominantly a St. Bernard, was found in Grand Junction, Colorado, and adopted while only six months old by Judge Anthony Miller, the local law enforcement official responsible for Mesa and Delta counties. Miller named the puppie "Elmo," and the two became inseparable companions. While Miller married and moved to the Santa Clara valley, in California, he took Elmo with him.

In 1893 Elmo, now abnormally large and healthy, mated with a Scotch shepherd, Shep (not the first time an odd synchronicity appears in MN's diary). Their only child was named "Buck" and grew into a 140-pound crossbreed in whom the Wold Newton genes strongly manifested themselves. Buck lived for four years at the Miller ranch before being kidnaped and taken to Alaska, to aid men in the search for gold; a large strike had recently been made there, and dogs were in high demand.

Buck's history after his abduction does not need to be told here, thanks to the lengthy account made of Buck's history by the writer Jack London. London, who worked as a gold miner in the Klondike in 1898, seems to met and befriended Buck's owner while in the Klondike. Buck's owner obviously boasted to London of his dog's accomplishments, and perhaps even showed off Buck, and London was obviously impressed enough to immortalize the man and his dog as "John Thornton" and "Buck," in Call of the Wild.

Following the unfortunate death of "Thornton" at the hands of the "Yeehats" Buck took to the wilds, mating with the wolves of the pack he ran with and becoming the "Ghost Dog," responsible for hounding the "Yeehat" tribe.² From there Buck's trail becomes obscured, with a supported genealogy impossible to achieve, given Buck's lifestyle and the vast amount of land over which he roamed. MN's best researches have turned up two branches that were probably descended from Buck.

The first appears in Sunnybank, New Jersey, where a collie of exceptional size and intelligence, owned by the writer Albert P. Terhune, attracted the attention of a number of natives and visitors to the resort town. Terhune described the dog as having "benign dignity...gay courage...uncanny wisdom..(and) a Soul." The dog, Lad, was born in 1914 and performed his extraordinary feats in the Sunnybank area for eighteen years. Terhune records that Lad spawned two litters, one in 1920 and one in 1923. He does not record what happened to those puppies. However, written accounts from the Peoria, Illinois Peoria Journal in 1929 mention an extraordinary litter of collies, born to a local family, the Carracloughs, from their collie bitch and an unknown father (called "D" for the purposes of the family tree in Appendix A). The bitch's litter were collies with white stripes–the Wold Newton/Buck stripes–and the oldest puppie was visually identical to Lad. This dog was named "Lassie" by Timothy Carraclough, and quickly demonstrated his supercanine intelligence. Lassie's many feats are of course well known, although so far as is known his children have not manifested the extraordinary intelligence of the Wold Newton line.

The second line of Buck's descendants begins in Washington, DC, in 1920. Extensive research by MN in the archives of the Dupont Circle Animal Control Center have revealed that in early 1920 an extraordinary litter of newly born puppies was found on the shore of the Potomac River at the mouth of the Rock Creek. The puppies were of varying breeds and shared certain common characteristics, among them unnatural size and intelligence. They were taken by Animal Control officers and brought to the Center, where they were quickly adopted.

The first puppie, primarily a German shepherd, was adopted by Suzanne McGrail, a resident of Arlington, Virginia. She gave the puppie to her brother, Walter McGrail, a trader and entrepreneur. McGrail had a business engagement in Alaska and the gift was intended as both a good luck gesture and to provide him with companionship during the trip. Unfortunately for McGrail, while traveling across Alaska he and the puppie were separated. The puppie was found within a day by what reports claim was a "wolf pack." These "wolves" adopted the puppie and helped raise it, and in 1923 the now-grown dog saved McGrail's life. McGrail, transporting furs to Fairbanks, was waylaid by thieves somewhere west of Mt. Klotz in Canada. The thieves stole McGrail's furs and left him for dead. The dog, who McGrail named "Rin-Tin-Tin," saved McGrail, and the two went on to a long and fruitful friendship, with Rin-Tin-Tin displaying extraordinary abilities, supercanine intelligence and the ability to obey commands given in English.

This account obviously raises some questions. A puppie being adopted by wolves? A puppie, staying with a wolf pack? A dog, raised by wolves, abandoning the pack and saving a human, and further going to live with that human? A dog able to follow spoken commands? This is not particularly credible, unless one accepts two suppositions:

• that Rin-Tin-Tin was the descendant of Buck and had the Wold Newton genes in his blood; and
• that the "wolf pack" that adopted Rin-Tin-Tin was not in fact a "wolf pack" but were the half-canine, half-lupine descendants of Buck, three generations removed.

For the moment we will leave aside Rin-Tin-Tin and return to the litter found in Washington in 1920. The second product of that litter was adopted by an agent for an unnamed security agency in the American government. The agent, whose agency name was "Blair Thompson,"³ is said to have been attracted to the puppie by its size, which was abnormally large, by the the streak of silvery-white hair across its back and down its chest, and by its behavior in the pound; "Thompson" later commented that "The damn thing just looked at me with these big eyes; it was like it expected me to adopt it, and wouldn't take `No' for an answer."

"Thompson" gave in and adopted the dog, which he named "Silverstreak." The dog was of mixed heritage, with certain elements of St. Bernard and beagle, although the most pronounced was a strong streak of German shepherd. The dog grew to be supercaninely large and display "unnatural" intelligence; "Thompson" found these useful and trained the dog to help him on his job. Silverstreak was of significant help in assisting "Thompson" in 1928 when he stopped the scientist/inventor "Professor Ross" from using his destructive "kappa ray beam" to shoot down planes and loot the wreckage.

We shall return to Silverstreak later. For now, we will return to the third remarkable member of the 1920 litter. This puppie was primarily a golden retriever, manifesting both the Wold Newton genes as well as those of his ancestor A. The puppie shared the size and intelligence of its litter mates, and like them was adopted fairly quickly, being taken by one Edward Jenkins and named "Bobo."

Jenkins, popularly known as the "Phantom Crook," lived a transient lifestyle, in large part because of his criminal activities; he was known and wanted in a number of nations and American states for his crimes. By 1925 he had settled in California, where due to a technicality he was not a fugitive from the law nor could be extradited. For at least a decade afterwards Jenkins committed crimes (often helping the underdog, it must be admitted) in various states and countries. In these deeds he was aided by Bobo, who loved Jenkins and was willing to do almost anything to help him. Bobo, like his litter mates, displayed an extraordinary amount of intelligence, repeatedly obeying Jenkins' spoken commands and independently communicating with Jenkins.

The fourth member of the 1920 litter was, like Bobo, Rin-Tin-Tin, and Silverstreak, of unusual size and the bearer of grey eyes and a white streak of fur, but unlike the others his breed was not obvious. This dog, referred to as "E" in the family tree, displayed no signs of unusual intelligence. E was bought by a dog breeder located in Chevy Chase, Maryland and sold to the wife of a businessman living in Seattle, Washington. E lived a normal lifespan, dying in 1936 and not betraying the presence of the Wold Newton gene. E also bred several litters, who when grown bred further litters of their own, meanwhile spreading geographically. The Wold Newton/Buck (WN/B) line became watered-down with repeated breeding and reproduction with weakened, mongrelised dogs, the resulting becoming increasingly smaller and less intelligent.

What happened to the other members of the 1920 litter is not currently known. [Several pages potentially dealing with these other dogs were ripped from MN's diary--Jess]

Returning now to Rin-Tin-Tin, MN included with the diary a newspaper column from the Alaska Daily Press, dated July 16, 1936, mentioning the famous dog's passing. MN notes, though, that in late 1932 McGrail, always looking to increase his business ventures in the north, made a trip to Hay River, a town on the shoreline of Canada's Great Slave Lake. There, while McGrail spoke with the locals, Rin-Tin-Tin wandered around the area, and apparently met a female Siberian husky of pup-bearing age and mated with her. In 1933 a litter of two was born to this husky bitch, whose owner sold them from a street corner.

The first of these puppies was three weeks old when it was purchased from the owner by John Preston, a new recruit with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Preston, then a private, hand-fed and hand-trained the pup, who was primarily a husky although with the Wold Newton genes and the white streaks of fur common to the line. Preston named the husky "King," and as Preston rose through the ranks King accompanied him on his patrols through Western Canada, most notably in the many years Preston spent as a Sergeant, patrolling the Yukon.

The second of these puppies was four weeks old when it was purchased by James Thorne, an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (Hay River acted as a common stop-over point for RCMP officers working the area) Thorne, like Preston, hand-fed and hand-trained the pup, naming him "Silver Chief." Silver Chief was described by Thorne as "part husky and part wolf;" like his litter mate King, the husky came from his immediate mother, while the "wolf" came from the Buck/wolf lineage running through Rin-Tin-Tin. Like King, Silver Chief was of great help to Officer Thorne, who quickly rose to the rank of Sergeant while patrolling the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Thorne had a long record of success, but stayed at the rank of Sergeant for the next two decades; it might be surmised that Thorne had disciplinary problems that kept him from promotion. Silver Chief, for his part, displayed the usual intelligence of the Wold Newton canine line in help Thorne fight crime. In their last recorded adventure, in 1954, they helped stop a Communist conspiracy in Canada's Northwest Territories; Silver Chief was essential to Thorne's efforts, despite his advanced age.

MN was unable to find evidence of Silver Chief producing any litters, but there is evidence that King spawned at least twice. The second child will described later. The first has been discovered by MN after extensive research. Using the account of the Russian writer Nicholas Kalashnikoff, the police records of the RCMP, and the newly declassified records of the KGB, MN has reconstructed a heretofore unknown event.

Immediately following the 1943 rescue of a disease-plagued outpost of fur trappers north of Fort Simpson in the Northwest Territory, Sergeant Thorne and Silver Chief were summoned home to speak with Thorne's superior in the RCMP. Immediately following this meeting, Thorne, Silver Chief, Sgt. Preston, King, Sergeant King (another officer, one of some note, with the RCMP), and a stranger none of the other Mounties recognized left, and were gone for two months. According to the records of the KGB, the stranger, called "Kioga," acted as a guide for the RCMP officers, taking them north, to the Beaufort Sea, and from there, following an uncharted current, to an island in the Arctic Circle north of Siberia. From there they met a team of Soviet commandos. What they were doing on this island (the KGB files reveal its name to be "Nato'wa")⁴ is not known, but given that this action took place during wartime we might suppose it to have been aimed at destroying a German presence on Nato’wa.

While there King mated with a Siberian husky, who gave birth in 1943 to a small litter. The husky was the property of a Siberian tribesman who had enlisted in the Red Army before being transferred to the Soviet Special Forces. The husky and her pups were trained by the commando and served in the war. After the war the commando was, like many of his compatriots, sent to a gulag in Siberia. The commando escaped and made his way north, to rejoin his people. A year later the oldest pup of King's litter appeared at the camp of the commando's tribe, having seemingly walked thousands of miles from the West. This pup, named "Toyon," accompanied the commando thereafter and aided him and his people in their wanderings in Siberia for the next several years. Toyon displayed such intelligence, tenacity, and was of such size that the commando's brother described him as "no ordinary dog but our good spirit." Toyon's descendants, if any, are unknown.

Silverstreak, meanwhile, accompanied "Thompson" on a mission in Connecticut in 1929 and while there mated with a beagle. That mating produced the most extraordinary member of the canine Wold Newton family so far: Rover.

Rover, born in 1930 somewhere in western Connecticut, was predominantly a beagle, showing his father's breed, but also possessed a marked strain of terrier. Where this might have come from is difficult to say. MN was unable to find any solid evidence for a terrier being a part of the WN/B line, but there are gaps in the family tree that cannot be accounted for, and so it is possible that at some point in the past a terrier mated with one of Silverstreak's ancestors.⁵Rover's early life is unknown, but given the lack of records or local folklore it is most likely that he lived a normal life. Sometime in his fifth or sixth year he began to speak English. He had learned English from the humans around him, and approached life with the attitude of a dog, but was undeniably intelligent and capable of speech. By 1937 he was working at the Cornwall (CT) Fire Department, a position he held until his death.

Later that year he mated with a mixed-breed fox terrier/Airedale terrier. Their son was born in early 1938. In late 1943 this dog, named "Gorgon," was rescued from the Cornwall Pound and given to John Baxter, a local businessman at a construction plant. Within a few days Gorgon was befriended and chiefly cared for by Baxter's six-year-old son Barnaby. It was Barnaby who made the discovery that Gorgon was, like his father, capable of speech. In 1947 Gorgon led Barnaby to his father, so we might conclude that Gorgon and Rover had been in contact before Gorgon's adoption, and further that Rover was responsible teaching Gorgon how to speak. Nonetheless, Gorgon's linguistic faculty is notable, and although John Baxter never witnessed it, there is written testimony of Congressmen O'Malley confirming Gorgon's ability to speak.

As far as is known, none of Gorgon's children were unusual in any way.

Bobo accompanied Mr. Jenkins to New York City in 1926, and while walking in Central Park met and mated with a schnauzer. The child of this pairing was, to the eye, all schnauzer. Through a process unknown to MN this schnauzer was given to or found by Charalambides "Nick" Charles, who named him Asta and raised him. Asta helped Charles and his wife Nora on their various adventures.⁶

What happened to Asta after the Charles retired from crime-solving is not known, but he is known to have led a somewhat wild life, like the Charles' themselves. In all likelihood the dog known as Benji, who is on record in 1974 as having saved the lives of two kidnaped children and using supercanine intelligence in doing so, is a descendant of Asta. However, there is no evidence of Benji's forebears--he was a mutt of very mixed heritage--or of Asta's descendants, and so this must remain a conjecture.

E's descendants, as mentioned, weakened the WN/B lineage, producing no notable animals. Three generations after E's birth, however, the line bred true. In 1963 a malamute bitch in the mountains east of Seattle mated with a particularly wolf-like member of the WN/B line. Their oldest child had the WN/B size and intelligence, and was adopted from the Interbay shelter at four months, having previously wandered into the suburbs with its mother in search of food and being captured by Seattle Animal Control.

This dog, named "Kävik" by its owner, was almost immediately put to use as a guard dog at the owner's house, being left outside in both heat and cold, trained to attack all strangers, and given only a minimal amount of food. This resulted in Kävik growing to be vicious and unpleasant. However, for all but a tiny amount of time he was chained, leaving him with no chance for escape. Those times when he wasn't chained he was being taken by his owner on various trips, times in which the owner would beat Kävik to ensure "good behavior." In the winter of 1968 Kävik was being sent on a plane trip to Juneau (its owner sending him his sister) when the plane crashed. Kävik survived and was rescued by Andy Lawrence, a fifteen-year-old. Lawrence treated Kävik with love and compassion, and Kävik responded, helping Andy and his family and saving them from a wolf attack. Kävik's legal owner tracked Kävik down and reclaimed him, taking him back to Seattle, but Kävik quickly escaped, running away when his owner tried to beat him, and walked the hundreds of miles back to the cabin of the Lawrence family.

As far as is known there are only two currently active branches of the WN/B line. The first comes from King. As mentioned, in 1943 he fathered Toyon on a Siberian husky. King also produced a male offspring in 1939. The U.S. Army's K-9 Dog Training Corps, looking for ways to justify their funding and make themselves useful to the Army, had investigated means by which to alter the Corps' dogs, to make them more intelligent and more vicious. The files regarding these methods remain classified, but MN has found evidence that experiments on enhancing the Corps' animals were begun in 1937, and perhaps even earlier. It is unclear who was responsible for these experiments; there are some indications that Dr. Reinstein had begun his intelligence- and physique-enhancing experiments on animals before switching to human beings. Files received under the Freedom of Information Act also indicate that some of the research of Dr. Jurgen Moreau and of Dr. Conrad Klotz⁷ were used by the Corps' scientists.

While much remains to be revealed of these experiments, one thing can be ascertained with certainty. In mid-1938 Sergeant Preston traveled to Washington, DC with King. Apparently news of King's extraordinary abilities had spread to the K-9 Corps, for King was bred with several of the Corps' dogs, in obvious hope of passing whatever superior genes he possessed. The results have been and remain classified, but MN was able to discover the existence of one child of King's: Rex, a German shepherd born in 1939.

Rex was raised in the Corps and trained by them, and distinguished himself during WWII and Korea, helping American troops and fighting the Axis and Communist enemy and earning himself the nickname "Rex the Wonder Dog." (As with the Corps itself, most of Rex's exploits during the war remain classified) After Korea Rex's trail becomes garbled, with some accounts having him in Hollywood working as a "stunt dog." Other accounts place him in Florida, in the 1960s, in the company of a talking ape. This latter account cannot be credited, however, for Rex should have died by the 1960s, and while there is at least one account of an extraordinary ape--the legendary Six-Gun Gorilla--no evidence has been found to support this account. Nothing is known for certain of Rex's later years, but based on two articles from the Midnight Examiner we can deduce the existence of two of Rex's children or grandchildren.

MN's diary, to this point, has had positive tales to tell, of dogs who were war heroes, who sacrificed themselves to save their human families and companions, who made great efforts on behalf of those companions or of society in general. The WN/B canines are like the Wold Newton family tree in this; the Wold Newton meteor was responsible for a pantheon of heroes, human and canine.

But the Wold Newton meteor was ultimately responsible for its share of evils, as well. From Professor Moriarty to Fu Manchu, the Wold Newton family has its blackguards, cads, and bounders. So, too, with the WN/B line. Two uncredited articles in the Midnight Examiner published in its July 14 and July 21 issues describe the horrific events which occurred in Plainsboro, New Jersey that summer. Mike Barry, an archaeologist, adopted a German shepherd, Lucky. More respectable news outlets than the Examiner ran the story of the events following Lucky's adoption: the savage attacks on Barry and his wife, Betty, and his children, Bonnie and Charlie, and the eventual capture and killing of Lucky. The Examiner, however, quotes Barry as saying that Lucky's eyes were a glowing red, that he acted with an uncanny intelligence, and that he seemed to be possessed by a "South-American dog demon," a demon aided by unnamed "cultists." Police reports did not confirm the existence or apprehension of these cultists, however, and no evidence apart from Barry's somewhat hysterical testimony could be found to support his "dog demon" hypothesis.

But dogs that act with a human intelligence have been seen before, in these very pages. Occam's Razor dictates that given the choice between a "dog demon" and a dog which is the inheritor of abilities from very real ancestors, the latter choice is the logical one. It must be concluded that Lucky was no demon, but simply the son or grandson of Rex the "Wonder Dog." Lucky, like Rex, was a German shepherd. Lucky, like Rex, had human-level intelligence. But unlike Rex Lucky gave in to his most primal and evil instincts.

Fortunately, Rex's other child or grandchild turned out to the better. His name is Ralph von Wau Wau, and his story is told by Jonathan Swift Somers III. Ralph was an intelligent German shepherd who was experimented upon by a crazed scientist named Malion and given the ability to speak. Perhaps Malion was drawing upon the earlier research of the K-9 Corps, Reinstein, Klotz or Moreau; perhaps not. It seems just as likely that the potential for speech lay within Ralph all the time, and it merely took some experimentation to awaken this ability in him. Ralph's cousins, Rover and Gorgon, possessed this ability; it is probable that the ability was Ralph's all along, and it took only some slight enhancements or adjustments on Malion's part to trigger this ability in Ralph.

As mentioned, the line of King is still active, Ralph von Wau Wau having fathered numerous young during his years. The other active WN/B line comes descends from Kävik. His son, labeled "F" on the family tree, was born in 1970. F's son, labeled "G" on the family tree, was born in 1981. G's son was born in 1990. G's son, Mush, is like Kävik a malamute. Mush, however, has displayed a somewhat mischievous spirit, and while he is nowhere near the evil of Lucky he is a far cry from the selfless heroism of his ancestors. In 1995 Mush was found in the woods near suburban Seattle by Kelly Mangiaro, a nine-year-old girl, and adopted by Mangiaro and her parents. Mush, perhaps tired of living wild or simply feeling roguish, spoke to Mangiaro (openly demonstrating an ability that Ralph, Rover and Gorgon took pains to keep secret) and convinced her that he was a "Mushamute," an alien "from a planet known as Growf-Woof-Woof, in the solar system of Arfturus, a star similar to Canis Major in your galaxy." This deception worked on Mangiaro and guaranteed Mush steady and safe room and board. It is not known whether Mush has any children.

It is here that MN's diary ends, at least with regard to the WN/B line. I hope that further researchers might use MN's work as a springboard for other investigations.

Next, in Part Two: The Carters of Virginia: A Tragedy

¹ It should be noted that all the dogs descended from Juno had these white stripes. They may not always have been very visible, but close examination of available portraits and pictures has revealed their presence.

² It is notable that no further records of the "Yeehats" have been discovered, nor that any cultural artifacts or physical evidence of their existence has been discovered in various archaeological expeditions to Northern Canada. It may be that the the "Yeehats" were genocidally slaughtered by Buck, but it may also be that they scattered and joined other Canadian native groups. MN hints at a tribal migration to "Nato'wa," for more information on which see the Silver Chief entry above and ⁴ below.

³ The true identity of Mr. "Thompson" will be explored in depth in a future chapter.

⁴ Nato'wa has so far not been mapped, although it is hoped that current efforts to redraw the world's maps with high-powered satellite scanning will reveal its location. Its inhabitants are likewise unknown, and Kioga's comments on the island and the "Shoni" tribe native to it were minimal. It could be that the Shoni were originally Russians or Siberians who fled Tsarist oppression by fleeing to the north. It may also be that the Shoni were related to the tribe of Inuits who lived near Clark Savage's "Fortress of Solitude." The identity of the tribe who attacked and slaughtered Kioga's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln Rand, while they were visiting Nato'wa, is also unknown. Most of the Inuit tribes of the Arctic circle are inherently peaceful, although an 1882 polar expedition led by Captain Jonathan Vance discovered at least one hostile tribe (on the northern coast of Greenland) as well as species of Arctic life so far unknown to science. There is also the possibility that the "Yeehats" who posed such dangers to Canada's Northwest Territories during the mid- and late 1890s were forced to flee to the north by Buck (see above) and eventually migrated to Nato'wa.

Further investigation into this, as well as a well-funded archaeological and anthropological expedition to Nato'wa, is required.

⁵ An alternative possibility to which MN briefly alludes is that the WN canine genes had an unusual effect: altering the very species of dogs while they were in fetal form. While this idea is undoubtedly far-fetched it cannot be automatically discounted; in a world in which dogs can talk, aliens achieve effective immortality, and aliens in the shape of men can fly, what might not be possible?

⁶ It is interesting to note that in 1926 Charles was still an employee of a famous detective agency (perhaps the Pinkertons). Might Charles and Jenkins have been acquainted professionally, and Jenkins, for reasons of his own, have given Charles the schnauzer?

⁷ Dr. Klotz's handiwork will be detailed in a later article exploring the British half of Juno's descendants.
 
 

The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903)
Barnaby by Crockett Johnson (1943)
"Challenge of the Yukon" (1935)
"Code of the Air" (1928)
"Devil Dog - The Hound of Hell" (1978)
"The Doge Whose Barque Was Worse Than His Bight," by Jonathan Swift Somers III. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1976
The Giant of the North by R.M. Ballantyne (1882)
Kävik the Wolf Dog by Walt Morey (1968)
King of the Royal Mounted by Zane Grey (1935)
"Kioga the Snow Hawk" stories (1935)
Lad: A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune (1919)
"Lassie, Come Home," Saturday Evening Post, 1938, by Eric Knight
Midnight Examiner by William Kotzwinkle (1989)
Mush, A Dog From Space by Daniel Pinkwater (1995)
Old Yeller by Fred Gibson (1959)
"The Painted Hills" (1951)
"Phantom Crook" stories by Erle Stanley Gardner
"Rex the Wonder Dog" stories in DC Comics.
Silver Chief, Dog of the North (1933) & The Return of Silver Chief (1943) by Jack O'Brien
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett (1934)
Toyon: A Dog of the North and His People by Nicholas Kalashnikoff (1950)
"Where the North Begins" (1923)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (1847)