that is the principal difference between a dog and a man. – Mark Twain
A dog has the soul of a philosopher. – Plato
Do you know that dogs are good for our health? I remember a TV show of Oprah once interviewing a book author on things we can do to have a longer life and one of these is to own a dog. Oprah asked whether owning a dog makes us happy persons. The author said the real reason why dog owners live longer is because they usually have to walk their dogs and they end up becoming physically healthier.
One little known fact about the late real estate billionaire Tan Yu is that he used to own a mixed-breed Pekingese, which his daughter Elena Tanyu-Coyiuto once bought as a forlorn pup in a street in Taipei City. The dog was called Pauper. Pauper led a very long life and became the best friend of Tan Yu, sitting at his feet at home daily until the wee hours. Pauper always barked to welcome his master home even before Tan Yu rang the doorbell. Years ago, when Tan Yu underwent his first major kidney transplant surgery in Houston, Texas, by the topnotch Jewish surgeon Dr. Barry Kahan, his recovery was then uncertain. At this time, his dog Pauper died in his condo penthouse in Taipei, after which the real estate taipan recovered.
The Pekingese is one of the breeds uniquely endemic to China. As a dog lover, I’m amazed and would like to someday ask God why we chinky-eyed Chinese have dogs which have the biggest eyes – the Pekingese, Shih Tzu, the Chinese Sharpei, Pug are all China dogs. God really has a good sense of humor!
The rise of Foo Dogs started as early as the Han Dynasty and their first appearance in Chinese art dates back to 208 BC to about 221 AD. Foo Dogs then vanished for nearly 400 years, but they made a comeback in the T’ang Dynasty that ruled the world’s mightiest empire from 618 to 917 AD and whose emperors of the Li clan were devout Buddhists. Foo Dogs were popular as protectors of sacred buildings and defenders of law. Foo Dogs were frequently given as gifts to the Emperor in the form of exquisite sculptures or other art forms. The Foo Dog was also known as the Celestial Dog and the Happiness Dog, symbolizing energy and value. They are often displayed in a pair with the male playing with a ball symbolizing earth and the female holding a cub.
Since Pekingese were once believed to be manifestations of the Foo Dogs and were rare imperial pets, commoners had to bow to them. They were owned only by the imperial clan inside the world’s largest palace complex of 72 hectares and 800 buildings called the "Forbidden City" in Beijing (formerly spelled "Peking" by the British). Those who stole one were punished by death. When an Emperor died, his Pekingese dogs were sacrificed so they could accompany and protect him in the afterlife.
Some Pekingese were bred so small, they could hide inside the sleeves of the nobility and were often called "sleeve dogs." Genealogical records of these imperial dogs were well-documented for centuries, unlike any other dogs on earth. It was of paramount importance that the Pekingese bloodline was kept pure, so they were only bred with the other royal dogs within the palaces. Eunuchs were kept whose sole purpose was to look after the imperial dogs.
The Pekingese reached the West in 1860 as a consequence of a dark, unforgettable period in modern Chinese history, when the Western colonial powers humiliated the Chinese Empire under the corrupt Manchu-ruled Ching Dynasty in the second Opium War. Britain forced China to accept its opium trade. In 1860, British troops overran one of the palaces in Beijing. Imperial guards were instructed to kill off the little Pekingese dogs to prevent the "foreign devils" from capturing them, but some survived and five of these imperial Pekingese dogs were part of the loot stolen. Admiral Lord John brought them to England and one of the five dogs was presented to Queen Victoria, who named it "Looty." A painting of Looty now still hangs in Windsor Castle. The other two pairs were kept by the officers that found them, with one pair going to the Duchess of Richmond at Goodwood. These dogs became the ancestors of the modern Pekingese.
Recently on a tour of south China, I passed by Quanzhou and Xiamen cities to visit some of my late mother’s kin. Surprisingly, they showed me many old photos from the 1950s, showing my late mother in her Malate home with her first husband, a young ethnic Chinese businessman from a La Union business family, and she owned a splendid-looking German Shepherd. I never imagined that mom owned a dog, because she rarely spoke about that period of her life. Kin showed me mom’s letters and told me that in 1961, mom’s first husband died, and in the same year, her adopted son Daniel and dog also died. I couldn’t imagine how heartbreaking that year was for our mother.
Years later, mom remarried our dad, who also owned German Shepherd dogs in his sawmill compound. Coincidentally, dad and his own dad were all born in the Year of the Dog. Dad’s death when I was only age seven led to the loss of the family business, the big home and, most tragically for me, the sudden loss of all our dogs. The Quezon City apartment where we moved in was too small for our teacher mom to own a dog, so I always thought she either feared or didn’t like dogs, because I used to ask her to buy a dog for me as a kid. Our neighbor had a noisy and unfriendly Japanese Spitz, which my younger sister used to loathe, but I never stopped dreaming about owning a dog.
Perhaps to overcompensate for a childhood deprived of dogs, when I started earning and moved to a bigger place, I started buying the very best pedigreed Labrador and Golden Retriever dogs until I had almost 30 dogs, some of whom I entered in dog shows. Later, when my sister visited me and complained that I had too many dogs, I gave away most of them to friends and retained only my favorites including Duchess, who has won dog shows and is a certified champion.