Pater semper incertus est.
To A Mouse
Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet of the late eighteenth century, wrote the following in his famous poem, To a Mouse:

 "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men 

Gang aft agley”.
These words became a household expression and, even more than  two hundred years after Robert Burns’ death, they proved to be extremely apt.
In March of this year I drove to England with my bitch, Tidy, and gave her to Anne Milne to take to Edinburgh in order to be mated to her dog, Glenholm Parker. She came on heat later than expected and therefore enjoyed a protracted Scottish holiday.  However, she came on heat just before Easter and the mating duly took place. Anne Milne and two of her friends were present when Parker was mated to Tidy.
It appears that she was not pleased by my choice and that she preferred a different dog.  Nobody was aware of her secret love for Glenholm Fletcher. 
Glenholm Fletcher

Glenholm Fletcher
Glenholm Fletcher

A blood sample was taken from Parker for his DNA identification and was sent to Laboklin in Bad Kissingen, Germany.

I was delighted when five tricolour puppies with perfect head marking were born.  It was just what I had hoped for. At eight weeks of age, when they had their second shots, blood samples were taken of the puppies and also sent to Laboklin for their DNA identification.

As I did not have the slightest doubt that Parker was the sire of the litter, I only checked the registration and chip numbers and sent off the pedigrees and Laboklin reports.  I never even looked at the small print at the bottom of the page, which said that Parker was not the father.
I was thunderstruck when received telephone calls from Germany, Scotland and Austria and found out the embarrassing truth.
A second blood sample was taken from Parker and also from Fletcher, another tricolour dog owned by Anne Milne. 

After a tense three weeks the laboratory e-mailed me:  Fletcher was the father!

The moral of this story is, that every breeder who has more than one stud dog should  have all of his breeding stock and every litter identified by DNA profiling.

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