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.

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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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and every other detail right down to who prints money and what our new postage stamp would Jook like.

We desperately need all of this information long before the next 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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I feel that we, as mature Canadians, can make clear and intelligent decisions, when we go to the voting booth.

All we need now is politicians who are ready to stand on a firm commitment.

Thanks for your good work. Cecil E. Bund North Vancouver

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