Puggle Pie :)

You may be asking yourselves, what in the world is Puggle Pie. Well, until today, I never heard of it either. Sounds quite gross actually! However, there was such a thing, and the following article will tell you all about it. Enjoy!

HISTORY OF THE PUGGLE

The Puggle is not a hybrid dog. It is not a baby Echidna or a baby Platypus which are both monotremes from Australia.

1970's
The Puggle character has been around since the mid 1970's. It is a toy character from The Lost Forests. Puggle is a registered trademark owned by The Lost Forests group in Australia. www.thelostforests.com.au

DOGS
Puggles are a relatively new type of hybrid dog breed; the first puggles ever bred were in 2000 by a breeder named Wallace Havens, owner and operator of Puppy Haven Kennels in Kingston, Wisconsin. The puggle is not purebred; it is a cross of a purebred Beagle mother and a purebred Pug father. The hybrid puggle is recognized by the American Canine Hybrid club.

BABY PLATYPUS AND ECHIDNA
Information from the Australian Platypus Conservatory about the Puggle Dr Shaw, in his scientific description of 1799, gave the name Platypus anatinus, from Greek and Latin words meaning "flat-footed, duck-like". However, when it became known that Platypus had already been used to name a group of beetles, a new term had to be adopted. The official scientific name became and remains Ornithorhynchus anatinus, with the first word meaning "bird-like snout".

Although the name "duckbill" was widely used as a popular description for the animal, the abandoned scientific name "platypus" gradually became the accepted common name for the species.

The preferred plural of platypus is either "platypus" or "platypuses", depending on which dictionary you consult. (We use the former for the sake of simplicity.) The term "platypi" is no longer considered to be valid.

There is no accepted term - equivalent to pup or cub - to describe a baby platypus. One possible name recently suggested is a "platypup".

In recent years, the inappropriate word "puggles" for baby platypus has been commonly used. This term was applied to baby echidnas some years ago because of their resemblance to Puggles, an American soft-toy character. (It is understood that the toy company concerned may have considered legal action to protect its registered trade-mark in relation to unauthorised usage). For some reason, this name is now being applied to baby platypus. This is both ill-informed (baby platypus and echidnas don't look very much alike, once they get past the initial post-hatching "jelly-bean" stage, and so baby platypus don't much resemble Puggles) and possibly illegal. www.thelostforests.com.au

ABORIGINE LEGEND
According to Aboriginal legend, the first platypus was born after a young female duck mated with a lonely and persuasive water-rat. The duck’s offspring had their mother’s bill and webbed feet and their father’s four legs and handsome brown fur.

The real (true) story of the Puggle from The Lost Forests

Once upon a time there were four million, three thousand, two hundred and one … Puggles, but now there are only a few bagfuls left, just like this one. Puggles lived in the Australian bush under the ground in tunnels. They came out of their holes at night to feed on their favourite tucker, split peas! All night long they would Puggle up every pea they could find, and as daylight approached, it would “dawn” on them that they had to get back home.

Waiting for them at their front doors would be the local people, (which is why they were called “early settlers”). Of course the Puggles had stuffed themselves so full of split peas that they couldn’t get down their holes and became stuck with their bottoms at the top, making them easy prey for the people who just loved Puggle pie.

So that is why, last thing at night, tie it up tightly and don’t let it out until the morning. This way the Puggles will not become extinct and maybe one day there will be as many Puggles as before …

Now wouldn’t that be an eye Puggling sight! If you would like more information on the Puggle then visit http://www.thelostforests.com.au

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