His name, Rocket, comes from his grandfather on his paternal side. (I believe it was from a huntsman in Maryland that had a Border Terrier named Rocket.) When my Rocket was born all of the litter mates – there were five of them - were named after Irish liquor. Rocket was originally Guinness. When I bought him, I decided that I wanted to find a better name for him and Rocket came out in his history and I thought that was the perfect name for him.

Rocket is a relative of the Jack Russells that use to hunt with Bull Run Hunt back in the 1970's. He is a direct descendant of Clementine a terrier who hunted with the hounds in the Bull Run Pack back in the 70's. Clementine would go out all day with the hounds. She lived with the hounds in the kennel even though she was a bitch – and she thought she was a foxhound. She was very strong; Clementine had the stamina to go for hours and hunt with the hounds. Rocket is a direct descendant – the ninth generation – all bred by Shelley O'Higgins, professional staff for Bull Run at the time, who has continued her career up until very recently as fulltime staff for three different hunts. Shelly bred the Jack Russells and every fourth or fifth generation she would bring in a Border Terrier to strengthen the bones of the Jack Russell breed - predominantly to get a heartier stock. So Rocket is one of those generations; his father was a Border Terrier and his mother was Clementine the Second, named after the original Clementine. One of the traits of this direct line is distinguished by the dogs' speed. Rocket is very well named since he is really, really fast. The breeder, at one time, indicated that Rocket is the fasted of all the dogs she has ever bred. She evaluated Rocket for racing capability and interestingly enough he is fast enough; he is the fastest ever. However, running after a disembodied tail has absolutely no allure for him. So we decided we were not going to train him to become a racer because we would fundamentally have to change the personality of the dog and I wasn't willing to do that. Rocket is so proud of his speed. We walk at Great Meadow every day and he is able to display his running abilities to me and to anyone else who happens to be walking their dog there, as well. He is just the fastest dog.

The other remarkable thing about Rocket is that he loves people just as much as he loves other dogs. He has the friendliest disposition and is the happiest dog I have ever seen. He has often been likened to the pig, "Babe." "Every day was a good day" for Babe – same thing for Rocket – every day is a good day!