Let me introduce you to my Guinny. Her picture is listed on the front page of this blog. Right now she is a 21 month old Newfoundland and the love of my life. At the present she weighs in at 129 pounds and her coloring is black and white or otherwise known as a Landseer.

Her special markings got their name from Sr. Edwin Henry Landseer (7 March 1802 – 1 October 1873) who was an English painter, well known for his paintings of animals—particularly horses, dogs and stags.

So popular and influential were Landseer's paintings of dogs in the service of humanity that the name Landseer came to be the official name for the variety of Newfoundland dog that, rather than being black or mostly black, features a mix of both black and white; it was this variety Landseer popularized in his paintings celebrating Newfoundlands as water rescue dogs, most notably Off to the Rescue (1827), A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society (1838), and Saved (1856), which combines Victorian constructions of childhood with the appealing idea of noble animals devoted to humankind—a devotion indicated, in Saved, by the fact the dog has rescued the child without any apparent human direction or intervention. You can view this picture by clicking here Saved.

Somehow at 21 months I have problems with picturing her trying to rescue me right now. Like I said earlier, she is the love of my life but still my BIG baby.