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(Enlarge) Chloe sits ready to welcome customers to The Wine Bin. Store owner Dave Carney adopted the rescue dog around Easter. Many customers who visit the Main Street business have tried to guess Chloe's breed, so Carney is having her DNA tested. He's holding a contest during the store's Yappy Hour on June 12 in which the customer who most closeley guesses Chloe’s genetic makeup will win a basket of wine.

She has the legs of a ballet dancer, the stripes of a tiger, and it's been said she looks like a Queen Ann chair. Although she works at a wine shop, her name is Chloe, not Chardonnay.

Chloe is store dog at The Wine Bin on Main Street and apparently the first topic of conversation for new customers, according to Dave Carney, one of the partners in the establishment, which has been open since last December's Midnight Madness.

"What kind of dog is she?" they inquire about the brindle and white bully-face with a bone-shaped blaze on her head, whose tennis ball and extra-large rawhide bone await her pleasure under the shop's central display table.

That she's some combination of pit bull, boxer, bulldog and/or greyhound seems apparent, but who's her daddy, not to mention her mom and grandparents?

Chloe was rescued after a raid on the home of a Baltimore drug dealer, so no information is available from that source.

(Whatever her questionable past, "She's very well-trained -- an amazingly great dog. She sleeps with my 8-year-old daughter and wakes her with licks," says the obviously Chloe-besotted Carney.)

But the fun-loving oenophile always looking for a reason to party, and Chris Smith, of Baltimore PetPals, who brought the two together, decided to find out about her roots and have a good time in the process.

Carney ordered a doggy-DNA test kit, the Wisdom Panel MX Mixed Breed test from Mars Veterinary, in Nebraska, and is planning a get-together -- make that a Yappy Hour -- during which Chloe's origins, by percentage, will be revealed.

The method used is not the cheek-swab test humans generally take but a blood draw, said to detect 157 different AKC-recognized breeds and to be 90 percent accurate.

Happily, 18-month-old (give or take) Chloe was a very good patient, cooperating quietly as she (and Carney) held her front leg straight while former vet tech Smith inserted the hypodermic needle, crooning "Chloe's so good!" No yipping, no jerking, and certainly no growling, only a little curiosity over that strange smell on her leg afterward. Maybe she's curious about the test results too.

And then her blood sample went on its way, with the results to be announced on the evening of June 12. Ain't science grand?

In the meantime, visitors to The Wine Bin are invited to consider the canine and enter their opinions about her in the boutique wine shop's official guessing log.

A basket of wine for the closest guess is riding on the outcome. And maybe also a sweet Chloe kiss.

She'll be welcoming well-behaved guests (human and canine) to the Yappy Hour from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Bin's adjacent parking lot, particularly apt considering the beneficiary of The Wine Bin's monthly charitable endeavors.

The Chloe-identification festivities will also include a raffle to benefit Baltimore Cares About Pets, a group working to coordinate the area's many pet rescue efforts by producing joint fundraising events, such as a planned 5K race in Oella on Oct. 18, in which any such group can participate, with proceeds to be shared. Cash prizes and another wine basket go to the lucky raffle winners. Tickets are $5 each and winners need not be present.

But who would want to miss out on all the fun with such a gracious hostess?

E-mail Lane Page at lpage@patuxent.com

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