I NEVER thought the dog
would take over.

First of all, it was so small.
should have seen through that.

Any dog named by the Chinese
after the lion is going to have some
kind of drive-to-power working for
it.

The Shih Tzus lived a sheltered
existence for 2,000 years as the
totally pampered pets of a long line
of emperors, right up until the
Communists broke down the doors
and started slaughtering the little toy
“symbols of imperialism.”

Only five of them, as I under-
Stand the story, survived the mas-
sacre. They were whisked off to the
U.K. by dog-lovers and crossbred
with very similar Tibetan dogs to
ensure their survival.

Now this, when you think about
it, is quite a crossbreeding exercise
— a species that spent millennia
being petted and stroked and fondled
in the Forbidden Palace, crossed
with a species that got carried
around in the loose folds of the
robes of Buddhist monks whose reli-
gion called for them to treat animals
as fellow sentient beings.

Nice dog work if you can get it.

if our little Shih Tzu, Sonja,
sometimes behaves like a high-test
biological love fluffbal!, we
shouldn't be surprised, should we?

If it was a guard dog we were
looking for, we picked the wrong
breed. All that would happen, should
a burglar break in, is that Sonja
would attempt to lick his feet.

If he looked at her sideways,
she'd roll over on her back, spread
her legs, and nod her head vigorous-
ly, tongue lolling cut, eyes nearly
crossed with goofy happiness.

When you see a description of
the dog’s behavior in print like this,
it sounds vaguely disgusting. Yet
when she does her routine to you in

Bob

Hunter

person, it’s all but impossible not to
get down and scratch her belly.

One day I happened to catch a
glimpse of myself in a mirror, on my
knees, scratching reverently away at
her belly, my own head bowed as
though I was worshipping her, and I
thought: Just who’s in charge here?

I note that the dog assumes it to
be perfectly normal to have people
on their knees, scratching her.

She also seems perfectly at ease
with being picked up and carried
around and stroked and cuddled any
time, day or night.

By some amazing coincidence,
our Shih Tzu has managed to Sand in
the middle of a family of fairly
extreme animal lovers.

Would that be Shih Tzu luck, or
what?

When we got her nine months
ago, I suspected that our domestic
life would be changed somehow. But
how much — this, I totally underes-
timated. The dog has become our
family’s equivalent of a national
treasure. She wanders around, hop-
ping on people's laps, licking you,
trying to get you to play with her.
being curious, sniffing everything,
doing all those incredibly cute little
dog things, the net effect of which is

to keep us all smiling and laughing
and squealing with delight.

For instance, the time she discov-
ered there is an actual whale bone —
a gray whale rib — leaning up
against the fireplace, and she tried to
chew on it. Shih Tzu chewing on a
whale bone: a definition of heaven.

Now, of course, she also occa-
sionally screws up royally. Cries of
“Bad dog!” echo from time to time
through our little domcstic bliss-nest.

But, naturally, we're into positive
reinforcement, which means no hit-
ting. So the worst that happens is
that Sonja. once again, rolls over on
her back and looks cute and help-
ess.

I came home one afternoon and
she was lying on a big Persian cush-
ion in the living room, basking in the
sunlight pouring in through the win-
dows.

There was a pause,

It took her a few seconds to rec-
ognize me. And in that time, I swear,
J saw a very iruperial creature look-
ing up to see who dared disturb her.

But, being compassionate as well
as regal, she rolled over and gave the
nod for me to go ahead and scratch
her belly.

Oh thank you, thank you, I
almost heard myself saying. Wait a
second! Who's the alpha malc
around here anyway?

It’s & bit hard now to imagine the
Shih Tzu in its primitive stage.

A giant floppy mop landing on
top of you in a mountain pass with
happy gurgling whinupers, and going
cross-eyed with ecstasy at having a
whole human to lick to death.
Something like that. Tough to resist.
Clever, these Oriental dogs.

In retrospect, what amazes me
isn’t really that she has taken over,
it’s how fast she took over. The
Littlest Lioness? Hello, Disney
Studios, have I got a concept for
you.

mailbox

Quebec column hit the mark

Dear Editor:

Doug Collins’ recent column on
. the big Quebec vote is the smartest
thing I’ve seen yet.

My first reaction, and still my
present feeiing, is that we need to
sit down and fully negotiate a com-
plete and total separation, just as if
the vote had been a massive yes.

We need to lay out exactly
where the boundary will be, who
shares what on the national debt,
where the border crossing will be,

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We desperately need all of this
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federal election. Indeed, the people
of Quebec need all of these details
before they cast any more ballots
of any kind. The people of Canada
have been led down the garden
path long enough on endless lists
of idle promises.

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Thanks for your good work.
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North Vancouver

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David Mitchell

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