Dining dog
(Dog chewing a bone)
I heard this guy before I saw him – there was a clicking, scraping sound from the ground, and there he was, munching away. Dogs here seem to wander about ownerless, scavenging from whoever or wherever they can. I have seen the small, long haired Chinese breeds of dogs wandering about in the city, which is a bizarre sight. My understanding of pedigrees is that they are incredibly expensive, so letting them roam around the busy Suzhou streets seems little short of madness.
Here, big dogs are very expensive, I heard that keeping them is banned, but importing them is not, so people generally keep them indoors which seems not only detrimental to the dogs but also ludicrous. Huskies seem the most popular larger dog, even though they’re not built for this heat. Yesterday however I was rewarded with the sight of a Huskie that had been shaved like a French poodle. I had to stop myself from guffawing in the poor beast’s face; it retained a flamboyant mane but the entire body had been clipped, leaving a round pompom tail of fuzz and flared legs. There wasn’t the opportunity to photograph, but I’m sure you can imagine it had lost most of it’s dignity.
About fifty years ago, the dogs in Singapore were also leading this kind of free life. They didn’t need to be leashed for walk, they just left and wandered about whenever and wherever they wanted to. they made fiends with other dogs. The dogs kept by our family were treated the same way, even the one looked like of pedigree also wandered about. (He was the pet of my father and all of us.)
The difference could be our dogs were fed and they had no chance to pick up anything on the road. They know when should they come back for lunch and dinner. After dark they have to stay indoor and be the watchman. In Chinee culture, dog is kept to look after the door (literally translated from Chinese)
Today, in general, Singaporeans keep dogs as their pet. The dogs stay at home and leashed for walk, visit vet when they are ill, eating pet food, being dressed according to the owner’s taste. The dogs have no freedom in doing anything, no friends.
According to my observation dogs of olden days smarter then these pet dogs. no offence.