Once Upon a Time in China Part 4: The Story of a Dog
If you know me just a little bit, you should know how I feel about man’s best friend and why. I never really wrote about it on this blog, and I sorta wish that I had. It would have made this blog a bit more interesting, I think. For those of you who have no idea how I feel about dogs and why – here is a one sentence explanation why.
I worked at Bermex for 8 months as a meter reader, and every day a dog tried to eat/kill me.
When I tell people I willingly ate dog in China, people tend to think I am crazy, sick, or both, but it never stops them from asking how dogs tastes. When dog was placed on my dinner plate in China, all I could think was, “Revenge! It is mine!!”
I’m not exaggerating. And if for some reason you think I am, stop what you are doing, find out who handles gas and/or electric meter reading in your area, apply, get hired, and if you last one month – I’ll applaud you. What? Did you think I was going to give you a prize or something.
Anyway, I digress. This post is supposed to be about China and a dog. This story is short, but sweet.
One night, in Shenyang, Phil and I were walking back to our apartment from a restaurant where we had just had dinner. It was still very cold at this time. A lot of the snow and ice from the worst winter storm in 50 years was still piled in places. It made walking a bit hazardous. On several occasions, I nearly busted my white American ass.
While we were walking, we noticed a little dog was following not to far behind us. This is not a to uncommon occurrence in China. Dogs walk around like they are people all the time – even looking both ways before they cross the street. Sounds strange, but I’ve seen them do it. It wasn’t any special kind of breed. It looked like a mutt to me.
The little dog followed us several blocks down the street until we got to the entrance to our apartment. Of all the places we lived in China, this place had the fanciest entrance – a revolving door. Such luxury, huh? Hehe. When we got to this door, I looked back at the little dog, and told him goodbye. I often talk to animals, even though they can’t understand me. Phil thinks I am nuts. He stopped behind us and watched as we stepped in and pushed the door.
I kid you not, as soon as the next available space got back to him, he stepped in and followed us into the lobby. I looked down at him and said, “Your not supposed to be in here. Get back outside.”
Our fancy revolving door looked a little like this, except that it wasn’t all swirly like that.
The dog looked at me, barked once or twice, and sat down. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I felt partially responsible that he was sitting in the lobby. I did speak to him, after all. The “security guard” didn’t seem to mind that a dog was chilling in his lobby. Thinking about it now, he may have been taking a nap.
I tried coaxing the dog outside, but he wasn’t budging. If the market right next to the apartment hadn’t been closed, I would have tempted him with something tasty. Nothing I did worked. The dog just continued to look up at me. If possible, I would say he had a confused look on his face.
A few minutes later, a man pushed his way through the revolving door. The man looked over at us and said something in Chinese, probably, “Come along little doggy.” The immediately perked and started following through the lobby. The guy opened the door to the security office and the dog followed in right after him.
I guess the dog knew where he was going after all. He was just waiting for his owner to show up.
Phil and I laughed all the way up to our unlucky 14th floor. You really had to be there to see it.
Thanks for visiting my blog. I got bitten 4 times in the 3 years I did the job and all only minor. The last bite was more than 18 months ago mainly due to me doing regular routes and knowing where they were.
Dogs never worried me in the job as we have strict local laws and heavy fines for dog problems. I actually enjoyed the job for the exercise and I never minded working on my own. The little man in my head kept me company!
February 7, 2008 @ 10:22 PM
@Dogbait – Hey there. Thank you for visiting and posting a comment. I love comments!
I too enjoyed my job – the exercise kept me in awesome shape. I had the best behind this side of the Mississippi. 🙂
Dogs here are a different story. We don’t have strict laws, at least I’ve never heard of them. If they do exist, no one follows them. We tried to contact all of the dog owners the day before we would their read meters, but even then, they often left Fido outside.
Apartment reading – now that was nice! No dogs or fences!
February 7, 2008 @ 10:42 PM
Fences were never a problem until this happened to me and I realised I was getting a tad to old to be hurdling fences.
February 8, 2008 @ 12:33 AM