Stephen Martin says (among other things):
>the animosity between alynx and dog is so pronounced, that
>you can only have one or the other.
I'd like to know the source of this! I haven't heard anything about
alynxes
and dogs hating each other. Indeed, the common knowledge that real
world
dogs and cats hate each other is, like much common knowledge, largely
mythical. I've had dogs that loved cats, and dogs that hated all other
animals,
including other dogs. I've never had one that disliked cats more than,
say,
squirrels, rabbits, or birds.
Regardless, it seems that some of us are forgetting about our liberating
mantra:
"Everything Greg says is wrong!". As the one who (literally) clothed
him in
those words, I have no hesitation in saying that, despite what Greg
says,
Orlanthi in *my* Glorantha breed and keep dogs, as well as alynxes. The
Torkani raise huge fearsome wolfhounds that can hold their own against
the Telmori wolves. The Lismelder raise excellent retrievers who have
the
habit (annoying or amusing, depending on POV) of retrieving squawking
durulz
by "accident" ("Oh so sorry; I'm trying to break him of it, but you
smell just like
a duck to him"). Nick's "Yinkin the Shepherd" is too good a story not
to be true.
Why try to make cats into dogs, in the process losing the qualities that
make
them cats and that the Orlanthi treasure; independence and self
reliance? This
is what would happen if alynxes were bred to be hounds and retrievers
and sheep
herders. Let them do what they do best; prowl about the stead keeping
watch,
killing vermin, and solitary hunting.
As for goats, as Sandy said, I doubt they are any more vilified than
they were in
Europe during the middle ages, yet they were raised there on land that
was
marginal for other critters. Say the Alps. Territory much like the
Quinven
Mountains. Goatherds are no doubt snubbed, considered below
stickpickers in
social standing, but I'm sure they exist. At least in my Glorantha they
do.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on the matter. Of course, in *your*
Glorantha, they
are worth exactly what they cost you. As they should be.
- ----
Boris
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