{"id":5849,"title":"What Breed Was Tray?","description":"We get asked an awful lot that very question, so Evie & I thought we\u2019d offer up our thoughts on the subject. Just what were the origins of Mary\u2019s beloved Tray and why are we so obsessed with breed?","content":"

Everyone knows that dogs have been our constant companions for thousands of years and that they were the first animal ever to be domesticated by us. Reading Professor Alice Robert\u2019s book,\u00a0Tamed<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 10 species that changed our world, gave me an even deeper understanding about our connection to dogs and how linked\u00a0they are to us. It\u2019s no surprise then, that when Evie and I started this journey, to get Mary Anning the recognition she so rightfully deserved her faithful dog, Tray, would very much be part of that narrative.\"\"
This little sketch of him curled up, probably by the fireside after a long day out on the beach fossil hunting, is so evocative of how she must have felt about her little companion. It\u2019s easy to imagine her doodling this drawing by candlelight, in the foot notes of one of the many papers she wrote, the documents and letters that would never be published. It gives us a glimpse into her life and shows how important this little dog was for her own comfort and wellbeing.\u00a0We don\u2019t even have to imagine how saddened she was by his death in 1833 in a landslide that nearly killed her too. She wrote a heartfelt letter to her great friend\u00a0Charlotte Murchison<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0telling her the sad news of Trays death.<\/p>

But what breed was he? It\u2019s clear from the sketch by Mary that he was a spaniel of sorts, but whether a pure-bred spaniel, it\u2019s hard to tell. So, Evie and I decided to do an internet search, looking for images that could help us in our investigation. We discovered an astonishing multitude of sepia tinted images of Victorian photographs of owners and their dogs, hundreds of them. It\u2019s clear to see the Victorians were as obsessed about their dogs as we are today. Strikingly though, as we scrolled through an endless haul of images on\u00a0Pinterest<\/a><\/strong>, we noticed the Victorian\u2019s had one thing we don\u2019t' have!\u00a0\"\"
The ability to be able to look beyond breed. Only a handful of these dogs would pass muster at the Kennel Club today. The majority are a beautiful cacophony of mutts, cross breeds and mongrels, all adored and loved, even Queen Victoria herself (bottom left corner) had a favourite crossbreed and was photographed with him many times.\u00a0And then something really sad caught our eye whilst we surfed the internet. All the news reports about the massive increases in purchases of \u2018Pandemic Pets\u2019 and the concerns of many animal welfare organisations on what happens when lock down is over. When people no longer have the time for their newly enquired pets.\u00a0\"\"
Even the famous Christmas slogan launched by\u00a0The Dogs Trust<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is now being reused, \u2018A dog is for life, not just for Lockdown\u2019 shows us just how worried some of the UK's biggest dog welfare organisations are. They are warning people that lockdown is not a time for impulsive buying of animals without full consideration of the future of the animal when ultimately, as lockdown comes to an end, that will mean for many of us, a return to fulltime work.<\/p>

\u201cWe are worried about this rather terrifying picture of a nation of people who are careless and impulsive when it comes to choosing where and how to buy a dog,\u201d commented\u00a0Bill Lambert, Head of Health and Welfare at the\u00a0Kennel Club<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>in a recent interview with\u00a0Financial Times<\/a><\/strong>\"\"
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Other charities including the\u00a0RSPCA<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Battersea Dogs & Cats Home<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0have also been voicing their concerns about the impulsive buying of pets and asking people not to rush into getting new pets right now. If Christmas and Valentine\u2019s Day is anything to go by there is a very strong chance that these \u2018Pandemic Pets\u2019 will be abandoned once life goes back to normal and people no longer spend as much time at home. Owen Sharp, chief executive of Dogs Trust also said in the same interview that he had already \u201cseen examples of people looking to return dogs because they\u2019re going back to work\u201d.\u00a0\"\"
So, in our quest to find Tray\u2019s origins Evie and I learnt this:<\/p>