Gwinn-Dell's Lethal Weapon
"The JRT"
Small white Terrier
Leaving paw prints on my heart
Winter has now come
My companion for almost 14 years, this tiny terror was only 10 inches at the withers and 12 pounds. What he lacked in size, he made up for in heart. He is very much missed. When I think of JRT, I think of the tenacious little feist in Faulkner's The Bear: " . . . grown yet weighing less than six pounds, who couldn't be dangerous because there was nothing anywhere much smaller, not fierce because that would have been called just noise, not humble because it was already too near the ground to genuflect, and not proud because it would not have been close enough for anyone to discern what was casting that shadow, . . . so that all it could be was brave even though they would probably call that too just noise."
JRT (pronounced "Jert") was our Jack Russell Terrier (or Jack Rotten Terror). His name, J.R.T., stands for "Jack Russell Terrier." JRT was our working barn dog. We bought him after researching Terrier breeds to control the vast rodent population here. He was happiest when doing what he was bred to do - - sending mice to the next world! His record was 184 mice in 2 hours. JRT was also one of my demo dogs for my obedience classes and was a very good worker. Agility was another of his favorite hobbies. He was a "Puddin," meaning the short legged variety. These were the guys used to control the rat population on English farms, while the long legged JRTs were used to hunt foxes. A true Terrier, JRT was a muscle with teeth!
Here's our favorite picture of JRT. We recreated the RCA picture. The RCA Victrola was small and Nipper was big, compared with our Victrola and our tiny ten inch terrier. I collect RCA Victor and Nipper antiques and this picture hangs over our cabinet Victrola between two antique portraits of the famous RCA dog listening to "His Master's Voice." Since JRT's eye patch was really on his right side we did a reverse negative for this portrait.