Another Mess

Ming was the runt of the litter. She was my first encounter with a pure breed Chow Chow.

Chu Bear was Ming's first and puppy. He was the only one in the litter. The biggest litter she ever had was four pups. Here Chu is watching his favorite television show.

Chu and Ming on the steps of the trailer that Mom and Dad were renting from

Mrs. Marks(Al Gore Sr. sister).That is another story but today we are talking

chow chows.

They are the oldest breed of dogs and were used by the Monks to guard the Monastery. I have always been a dog person but these were the most unusual ones I had ever encountered. The time line was back in the seventies. Yep, I had long, long hair and wire rim glasses.

When I first saw Ming as a puppy she would run round and round the coffee table , into the bedroom and back around the table. She was a very good natured girl and I was surprise to learn that the breed had a not so nice reputation.

I found out that Chow Chows are really cats in a dogs body. It is said they are the only breed with a black tongue and their ancestors were lions and bears. That in itself made them more fascinating.

When Chu was small he had a bad attitude. He did not wish anyone to touch him. The first vet I took him to advised "If his attitude does not change, you will need to find another vet." I started working with him and he became a true teddy bear. I would laugh at people when they saw him coming down the sidewalk and move off the sidewalk so he could have it to himself. He would have just licked them to death but they did not know that.

When Chu was 2 months old, I would find water all over the kitchen floor where his water bowl sat and it was a heavy bowl and he could not turn it over. As I sat silently watching television one evening, I saw first hand the reason for all the water. Chu had both his front paws in the bowl and he was splashing the water out on the floor. I started to laugh and he looked around with this cute expression and then continued to empty the bowl with his antics.

As Chu got older he would lay on the couch and watch television. His favorite show was Pappy Boweyton(misspelled) and he loved the airplanes flying around on the screen.

Ming was rather a lady like dog and never really did the cute antics of her puppies. Her death is why I feed a little food twice a day and never let them out to run after they have eaten.After a big meal, She was chasing a squirrel and her stomach flipped. The vet said even if it happen to his dogs, he would have been unable to save them.

Due to a Chow Chows body, heavy with short legs they do not jump on you as other dogs tend to do. I loved that attribute . I would let the dogs out by themselves in the early morning hours and a neighbor called and said my dogs were turning over her trash. I knew that could not be as they did not jump but she was convinced they were the culprits. So I started walking them on a leash before the sun came up. I had a fenced in back yard to my little house but they enjoyed walking around the neighborhood. One very cold morning, I awoke to the weatherman's saying it was down below zero. I jumped up and went running to the backyard and there was Chu with frost on the top of him. I knew then that he was not loosing any body heat.

Our first order to the day, would be for me to let them inside and they would lay and roll around on the carpet at my feet while I drank a cup of coffee. My morning solitude with my best friends.

Oh, I forgot the story about when Mary Helen and I lived in a duplex in Antioch, everyone around us were being broken into by thieves. Even the unit in our building, but not us the Chows saved the day as thieves are afraid of the big fuzzies.

Chows are a lot of maintenance due to their coats but if you ever wish to have a big cat in a dogs body, get one to hang around the house.

I was so loving to these dogs that the vet made a statement later, that he wished all the dogs he treated were as nice as my chows.

The kitty justice is that with love and tenderness you can change a dog with a bad reputation into pussy cats.