When I was at Junior school we all wanted to be able to call ourselves a true mongrel
Mongrels were highly desirable. Only effete snobs with more money than sense would want to spend money on a dog for a dog. Certainly not on one that was overbred, inbred & temperamental. Not when there were plenty of dependable, unpretentious, friendly mongrels looking for a good home
In terms of us children, a true mongrel was one who could claim English, Welsh, Scottish & Irish blood. I came close, but nobody in the family could think of any Welsh ancestors
Our family mongrel was called Scrap - a black & white terrier (mostly). For the second half of his life he had to run on only 3 legs because of an accident with a car the week we moved to the city
