A Dog's Life

Meet Shi Lo (Chinese for "small deer"), the lanky mutt with incredible ears that is the Director of Goodwill for the Raven, the bar across from our guest house. I have already enumerated Shangrila's many other charms, but the arrival of big dogs is yet another one. There are huskies and golden retrievers and all flavor of other large mutts that have replaced the small lap dogs, toy poodles and chihuahuas that dominated Beijing.

Anyway, even though I love big dogs (according to my mother I've been introducing myself to random, large dogs on the street since I was at least 3 years old) I would not have posted anything about them except that Shi Lo's story is just too good not to share.

Most of the time we would see Shi Lo out on the porch of the Raven -- regally overlooking the cobblestoned street in front of her, indulging the occasional pat on the head, and barking at any strange dog who wanders by. One day, Guillermo noticed that she left and came back with a half eaten sausage. Well, we found out later that day (confirmed twice), that she has a tab at the small food shop about 3 blocks down. Apparently she wanders down to get a sausage when she feels like it, the shopkeep adds it to her tab and her owner pays it off once a month!

I was amazed when I heard this story -- especially since most dogs I know would be at the shop getting sausage all the time. But, when I asked someone this ("Why isn't she there all the time?"), he just looked at me and said simply, "Have YOU had Chinese sausage"?

Touche. I have not. It looks gross -- but apparently just edible enough for Shi Lo though. On occasion.