National Mutt Day is less a week away -- and it's a cause that's important to Medieval Times

National Mutt Day, also known as National Mixed Breed Dog Day, was created in 2005 by Celebrity Pet & Family Lifestyle Expert and Animal Welfare Advocate, Colleen Paige and is celebrated on both July 31st and December 2nd. National Mutt Day is all about embracing, saving and celebrating mixed breed dogs. The biggest percentage of dogs abandoned and euthanized is due to the constant over-breeding and public desire of designer dogs and pure bred puppies that are sold to pet stores supplied by puppy mills that often produce ill and horribly neglected animals.

This special day was created to be celebrated on two dates per year, to raise awareness of the plight of mixed breed dogs in shelters around the nation, as approximately 80% of dogs in shelters are mixed breeds. Most pure breeds that end up in the shelter are generally rescued quickly by either the public wanting a “less expensive” pure bred dog or by a pure breed rescue. The day’s mission is to educate the public about the sea of mixed breed dogs that desperately await new homes and to celebrate the amazing characteristics that the mix of breeds creates in each individual dog.Mixed breed dogs tend to be healthier, better behaved, they live longer and are just as able to perform the duties of pure bred dogs - such as bomb and drug sniffing, search and rescue and guiding the blind. There are millions of loving and healthy mixed breed dogs sitting in shelters, who are desperately searching for a new home. One of the country's most famous movie dogs is Benji, is a mixed breed Terrier.