Lassie come home? Well, this one would like to ...

Remember Lassie? Of course you do. The distinctive (and smart!) Collie has starred in at least a dozen movies since the first in 1943 (which also featured Elizabeth Taylor), and four long-running TV series.

Not that everyone is a fan: "Lassie looked brilliant, in part because the farm family she lived with was made up of idiots. One of them was always getting pinned under the tractor, and Lassie was always rushing back to the farmhouse to alert the others. She'd whimper and tug at their sleeves, and they'd always waste precious minutes saying things like: "Do you think something's wrong? Do you think she wants us to follow her? What is it, girl?" as if this had never happened before, instead of every week."

OK, we won't ask humorist Dave Barry if he wants to adopt this lovely Collie -- ours is a male, by the way -- as were all the celluloid Lassies. Nick is 2, neutered, good with other dogs and available for all ages. His owners moved to a place where no dogs are allowed. (We can't say what we think of those places; this is a family website!)

Nick is friendly and good-natured. He likes to "talk" with grunts and grumbles, and he is housetrained. Like all Collies, he needs regular grooming.

Nick also needs an owner willing to explain to everyone who meets him that he is not Lassie. If you are that person, you can adopt Nick from the Countryside Humane Society.

If you're going to adopt a Lassie doppleganger like Nick, it will help if you know at least a little Lassie history:

1. Mickey Rooney, Jimmy Stewart, Peter O'Toole and Jeanette MacDonald also shared the stage with one or another of the many scene-stealing Lassies over the years.
2. Lassie is one of only three animals to have a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame; the others are Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart.
3. And finally, Lassie was "born" in 1938, first appearing in British-American author Eric Knight's short story Lassie Come Home published in the Saturday Evening Post.

Kennedy, last week's dog up for adoption -- a Phalène -- has found a new home!