If your favorite Muppet character is this guy (see below)…..
“Animal #animal #muppets” by markhillary is licensed under CC BY 2.0
You should know that he was based on this guy:
“Keith Moon, The Who, drumming, Winterland, SF CA USA, 3/28/1976” by wbaiv is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
The black and white photo above is of The Who’s drummer, Keith Moon, considered by many to be one of the greatest drummers of all time. His eccentric off-stage shenanigans were sometimes described as debauched, and sadly, probably symptomatic of a life of addiction and depression. On stage, however, he was an animal, and not for nothing was the Muppet character named accordingly.
Warning; Tortured connection ahead.
On these pages, we’ve discussed individuals who developed breeds that came to be named for them (i.e., Louis Dobermann, the Duke of Gordon, Parson Jack Russell, Lemuel Whitaker Boykin, to name a few)….but Keith Moon isn’t one of them.
Enter the Small Münsterländer. The breed’s name is pronounced Moon-ster-lahnder. You saw what we just did there, right?
We hear you groaning. We did warn you.
But silliness aside, this versatile hunting-pointing-retrieving breed was actually known by a few names before a unified breed club was established. Early on, the Small Münsterländer was known as the Heidewachtel, translated into English as the Heathland Quail Dog, and that was the name by which one breed club formed in 1912 went. Another breed club, however referred to this handsome dog as the Kleiner Münsterländer Vorstehhund, or Small Münsterländer Pointing Dog. Others had nicknamed the dog “Spiönken,” or “The little Spy” for how they worked in the field. And because so many clergymen and teachers owned these dogs, their term of endearment became another moniker: Magisterhündlein (or “Magister Dogs”), or “Little Master’s Dog.” Ultimately, when the Münsterland Association and the German Heidewachtel Club unified in the 1950s (some sources write that this happened in 1961), they were in agreement that the breed’s official name be the Verband fur Kleiner (Small) Münsterländer Vorstehhunde. Small Münsterländer is the name by which the breed appears in the AKC’s Miscellaneous Class, and by the UK’s Kennel Club. In the FCI, it is listed as the Kleiner Münsterländer.
No where is the breed known as the Keith Moon dog. Just saying.
If this breed interests you, you might like this earlier post:
Image: “Small Münsterländer Pointing Dog” by Bob Smerecki is available as a fine art print, and in home decor or lifestyle items here