A Shih Tzu owner

A Shih Tzu owner's prayer by Jonathan Fowler

About six months ago my girlfriend and I acquired a year-old black shih tzu from some friends of ours who because of a secondment could no longer
provide a home for him, and who had, very regretfully, to find him a new home.

So, Harvey entered our lives. We thought at first he was a bit dim; oh, how wrong we were .......... it's just taken a while for his true "character" to emerge.

Previously, both my girlfriend and I have had "working" dogs; me, terriers and a spaniel, for her, spaniels and collies. Shih Tzus were pigeonholed in the "small yappy foreign rat-thing" category. While we both wanted a dog, and had discussed it, we were vaguely discussing re-homing a rescued or unwanted one and would have preferred a working breed, or a mongrel. A pedigree toy dog was the last thing on our list ...... but we didn't want to see Harvey go to somewhere and someone strange, so we agreed (nervously) to take him.

He wasn't properly housetrained (for complicate reasons) but we've nearly sorted that out; he was mischievous and inquisitive - which has just got
worse and worse. We put his "naught" behaviour down to puppyness; now we know it's malice. He will go and take forbidden things - but only if you're not paying him enough attention. Last week, because we were ignoring him (Lou was revising for an exam) he went into another room, climbed onto the sofa and thence onto a table and picked up a cigarette lighter, Then he came back to us and sat down - just out of reach - with it prominently in his mouth. The implication was, "Play with me NOW or I'll chew this lighter." He's a little sod for getting his own way.

He's the most un-dog-like dog I've ever come across. In the morning, he stretches like a cat. He loves to be picked up and cuddled, like a child.
If I hug my girlfriend, I'll feel a pair of paws pressed against my knee, and seen and expression that says "me too ! me too !" ... When he's asleep
- unlike the terriers I know, who sleep with one eye half open - he's amazingly un-alert. Someone comes to the door (an action that would be met
with a chorus of barks by a normal dog) and he lies on the sofa, snoring unconcernedly. Late in the evening, it's even possible to pick him up in a lump and put him in his basket without properly waking him - like a sleeping child. He adores toast; and he's trying to learn talk, we're convinced of it.

What a character ....

A few weeks ago, exhausted after a long evening of keeping him amused and out of trouble, and with him then snoring gently on my lap (my , how he snores !!), I penned the following verses in the margin of a magazine ...... you might like it for your "humour" section !!

Cheers

Jonathan Fowler

A Shih Tzu owner's prayer.

Our Shihtzu,
Who art in his heaven,
Harvey be thy name,
Thy scampering done,
Thy snores are heard
Downstairs, and probably in heaven;
Give us this day our daily toast,
And forgive us our munched up pop-socks,
As we forgive those who go out and leave us.
And deliver us from postmen,
For thine is the sofa,
The bed and the armchair,
For ever and ever,
GET OFF !

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