How science went to the dogs (and cats)

Max, a two-year-old German shepherd, Belgian Malinois and husky mix, photographed in Greenlake Park in Seattle, United States.

EVERY dog has its day, and July 14, 2004, belonged to a boxer named Tasha.

On that date, the National Institutes of Health announced that the barrel-chested, generously jowled canine had become the first dog to have her complete genome sequenced.