![?wikipedia user TrueBlueLacys [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ab09a8b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/500x349+0+0/resize/840x586!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fkacu%2Ffiles%2F201503%2FBlue_Lacy_2.jpg)
Larry Zelisko is a columnist and the content editor at the Abilene Reporter-News. His column, "Larry The Answer Guy," responds to reader-submitted questions on a wide range of topics.
In today’s column, he answers this question from an Abilene reader, “What is a Blue Lacy? Why is it blue?”
The Blue Lacy is the official state dog breed of Texas.
“I found out that a Blue Lacy is a working dog, said to be the first breed originating in Texas,” Zelisko said. “It was started by four brothers named Lacy. So there’s where the Lacy part of the story comes in. They settled near Marble Falls, they were from Kentucky and they had some feral hogs and they used those dogs that they bred to round up the feral hogs and drive them to market. The blue portion is because of their coats. Their coats are a grayish, gunmetal blue to blackish color so they were called Blue Lacys. But something strange about them is that they can also be red, a yellowish, reddish brown color so you can have red Blue Lacys.”
Readers’ questions are answered Mondays through Thursdays. Send them to larrytheanswerguy@reporternews.com or Larry Zelisko at P.O. Box 30, Abilene TX 79604.
