The Turnspit Dog: A breed developed specifically for turning cooking spits
Now extinct, and I gotta turn my own spit like a chump
Add this to the list of things I randomly learned from Metafilter: the "Turnspit Dog" was a short, terrier-like breed of British dog which was developed specifically for the purpose of turning cooking spits. And on Sunday, people would bring them to church to sit on their feet and keep them warm. Sadly this breed of loyal, hard-working dogs went extinct because no one thought enough of the breed to bother keeping it around after the need for spit-turning dogs was replaced during the Industrial Revolution. (Sad.)
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
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