Thursday, August 15, 2013

Man's Best Friend Comes In Many Guises

The title for the picture is "Which animal doesn't belong?"  Right!  The one in the lower left hand corner.  That's a Ferret masquerading as a Toy Poodle.  How anyone could be fooled is beyond me but for a time in Argentina there was a thriving business selling these little guys. They aren't alone, however, in trying to fool some of the people all of the time.

It seems China must have a shortage of zoo animals because they're clipping and dying various breeds to look like wild animals.  It just goes to show you not every one sees things the same way!  Politicians take note.

But I don't want to go political today.  The world is too much of a mess and we all need a respite so revisionist dogdom will be my subject.

The handsome fellow at in the upper left box is a Lion.  Seriously. King of the beasts don't you know!  My what a long nose you have, and furry body and small feet!  Even the Chinese viewing this Tibetan Mastiff weren't fooled though.  You see, he barked.

In the upper right we have the Chinese version of a tiger - floppy ears and all.  I guess everyone has to suffer dog days in the summer!

And the lower right.  An adorable Panda. He is, really.  So is the dog breed with the black tongues that he seems to resemble.  Some of us know them as Chow Chows. Perhaps since they are both native to China they're interchangeable.

It's kind of nice though to be able to look at some of the absurdities of the world and get a smile out of them.  It beats banning rodeo clowns for life for a distasteful joke which is in and of itself an absurdity. Or having to read one more story about Anthony Weiner or the mayor of San Diego.  Or listening to rush Limbaugh tell us he could never moderate a political debate because he's too famous and it would detract from the subject and people at hand.  We're surrounded by absurdities.

But today, I'll take furry absurdities who probably went along with all the snipping and clipping in good spirits.  Oh, yeah, the handsome devil on the right is the late, great Bacchus.  A Saint Bernard.  Now he was a dog!




3 comments:

Betty said...

Bacchus WAS quite a dog. I remember all the photos and videos you posted, and understood your anguish when he died. Somehow, I thought you might acquire another St. Bernard, but you haven't, so far. Any chance you might still adopt another one, perhaps one that isn't a puppy?

Mari Meehan said...

Ah, Betty, if it were my decision alone I'd have had one long before now. But Mike has never gotten to the point where he wants to go through what we did with dear ole Bacchus again. The emotional toll was rough on him - and for that matter, me. The trade off is we have more flexibility to travel. In fact next week we're going to Billings and while there will be visiting Zoo Montana. They have some weird critters and I doubt any of them are dogs in zoo drag!

Margie's Musings said...

Bacchus WAS a neat dog and I know you loved him, Mari. I loved reading your posts about him.

It was very sad when he was gone.

I know I still miss Slinky, Scott's Shar Pei. Luckily I still have Missy, my car, but someday she too will be gone. She's ten years old.