The Dog

I saw this dog two weeks ago in an open air market. Just a puppy. Mostly Labrador retriever, I think. He'll grow to be huge. The owner wanted to sell it for 20 yuen-- $2.50; James Zhang could probably have bargained him down to $1.00 or so. The puppy was shivering with fright. I picked him up and cuddled him. I'd have loved to have bought the dog, but reason prevailed. He would have spent weeks in quarantine; Joe wouldn't have wanted him to join our family; nor would the cats. We're not home consistently. Our absences would be hard on a dog. Even our cats when we return from a trip, and cats are more independent.

Even you read the blog comments, John Quigley keeps saying I should buy the dog. At this point, I wouldn't know where to find this particular dog. An open air market is not a pet shop. Maybe we will get a dog after I return. I imagine the dog will have a happy life in China. Dogs do not care what political system they live under. And, while there is at least one dog restaurant in Weihai where dog meat is served as a delicacy, the odds are this dog will spend his life as somebody's pet.