Nell was born on April 23rd, 2010, in the county of Essex and shared her birthday with Shakespeare. Little is known of her parentage or siblings but, judging by a DNA test done in later life, it is unlikely that either parent were anything but mixed breeds themselves. The DNA test showed the following results: American Bulldog (expected) 38%, American Staffordshire Terrier (no surprise) 25%, Boston Terrier (unexpected) 12%, Border Collie (very unexpected) 12.5% leaving the remaining 12.5% as ‘other’.