My Ever-Rotating Zoo

I have always loved living with animals. My parents always had a Chow Chow, beautiful, but very much a family pet. Chows are loyal and protective of those people they know and love. It seems to me that Chows have gotten smaller over the years. I know why.

I went to Vet Tech school and almost finished the associates degree. I think I heard this while in school. The Chow is a dog from China. In times past, the head of the household would send the kitchen servant person to go out and get the meat for dinner (if easily grossed out, stop reading here).

The servant would go to what we would call the barnyard to fetch the meat. He would likely go to the corral, which was the reserve spot for future dinners, and dogs. The servants did not like this chore. They had no lassos, so they had to literally catch the dog in their arms to get it for the master's dinner. consequently, they would do their best to catch a dog without being attacked themselves. Surely, the dogs figured out what was going on with this servant guy. Animals probably communicate with others of their species, "Woof, woof."

The dogs who did not want to be captured, killed, and served for dinner became very aggressive. The most aggressive would chase the servant out of their pen. Some puppies were friendly, but those were the ones that were picked first to be food prepped.

The servant did not go after aggressive dogs unless they were the only choice from which to select dinner. So, they were the dogs who lived longer lives, mated, and hung around the property for food and shelter.

This trend continued in China for generations. As a whole, those aggressive dogs did a good job of filling the pen with puppies. The younger, more tender, and more friendly dogs did not survive to foster new generations of Chows. Since more of the aggressive dogs had puppies, at the end of counting season, the poor servant would count future dinners to discover that he had more of the vicious trouble with biting kind of dogs than they did the friendly Fido type.

That's why today Chows are known for aggressive behavior and being loyal to those family and friends who feed them and keep them happy. I can't verify that this story is 100% fact, but the theory certainly makes sense. Never approach a Chow. They may be predisposed to bite you, especially if you are putting out hungry pheromones.

My home has a solo human these days. We've been having kittens an watching them grow up, and go to their next stage of life." Angel" is about 10 years old, quite spry, and top cat of the family totem pole. She is a white and golden, Golden Flame Siamese. Her ear tips, tail, feet, and nose have a light golden toe, She has a unique, gravely Siamese meow She stays on the single sized Craftmatic bed when sleeping with her mama, many times each day and night.

The second down on the pet totem pole is the 78 pound Black Lab. We are going on our second year as living mates. He's beautiful, and I found him as a "rescue dog." For that reason, he needs a bit of pampering. He's good natured, but all dog when he hears a noise outdoors.

Last summer "Vanilla" had her final litter of kittens. For that reason she is also called "Granny, as her kittens had two kittens each in 2017 spring












So I grew up with Chows.

My mother always said, when I would get to playing too rough with "Ming" or "Bobo, "If you get bit, you're going to get a whipping! I mean it!