Monday, March 07, 2005

Every once in a while, I talk about my dog. He's a strange animal - a bit possessive, crazy, and schizophrenic. I blame that on the fact that he was hit by a car and abused by his former owners. Our family's relationship with him can be classified as love/hate, with an emphasis on love. You can't stay mad at him; he's too damn cute! He'll bite you, and then look REALLY sorry that he did such a horrible thing and continue being a good dog for the rest of the week. It took us nearly a year to decide to keep him permanently - he only recently got registered with the city of Houston because of our indecision. But we really like him a lot, despite his foibles.

He's also amazingly photogenic. Niles POSES for the camera. Let's see a comparison between him and my former doggie, Trixie. She was a sweetheart, but she was not very pretty.

Niles, in the most spectacular of his model stances:.


Trixie, in the best photograph we have of her. (And yes, that's a hose behind her head.):


Anyway, so I was talking about my dog the other day. And I received a barage of ridicule, merely for owning a dog with an unfortunate secondary pronounciation of the breed's name. By someone that supposedly thinks I'm a cool person. (Ahem).

Some of the following quotes are paraphrased from this twenty minute doggie-bashing:
"Shih Tzu? Don't you mean SHIT ZOO! What a shitty dog!"
"Yappy, disgusting creatures."
"What do they do? Spend all day eating their own shit?!"
::laughs for five minutes solid, sans breaking for breath.::
(to Kevin) "You have one too? How shitty!"

I didn't mention all of the intellectual banter, ie stupidity. Anyway, I told him to stop. And eventually he did because even the best joke gets old. And I still like the guy, despite his feigned attacks. But I bring it up because I rarely encounter such disdain for dogs. And it still bemuses me to imagine that much dislike for such an interesting animal.

There's no real reason for this post. I have more important thoughts floating around in my head, but I'm not inclined to share at the moment. I just wanted to mention this pet peeve to the world. (haha, pet... dog... so punny... err, shit..) If you want to get on my nerves, just follow suit. I suppose now's the time for people to start cracking all of the shih tzu jokes in their repertoire. I've opened myself up to it. However, remember -- I'm a firm fan of this breed. I won't forget.

Nope. You'll be in my bad books for a long time. Or I'll just sic Niles on you. That mauling should take care of all problems.