I was surprised to find a proud owner with her dog while shopping in Sogo at Zhongxiao Fuxing. I was even more surprised to find dogs being allowed in the MRT, restaurants, airport, hotels, etc.! Wow! Our dogs would be surely jealous of their Taiwan counterparts! Here, in Singapore, for the name of cleanliness, pets are barred almost everywhere in public except the roads and parks!
At one stall which was selling socks, and some daily necessities, I heard a dog barking. The bark came from a little Chihuahua which was perched on a chair a meter away. The proud owner told me that her dog would always bark to warn her of customers at her stall. What a clever little dog! Amazing that so much intelligence could be found in such a little dog!
The cute and clever Chinhuahua, Ting Ting, who fiercely guards her owner's stall.
At a hotel at Chang Chun Road, I was attracted to a black mother dog with a puppy. With them was also a black dog which I was told by Mr. Lee, was the father of the puppy. He had recently adopted the two dogs and the female dog gave birth to 5 puppies, 4 of which had been given away. He kept only one puppy.
The kind owner, Mr. Lee and the adorable puppy of his adopted strays.
The responsible and meticulous mother dog, Chu Chu.
Mr. Lee stationed himself as a shoe polisher outside the hotel, and created a cosy little corner for the mother dog and puppy at a parking lot just beside the hotel.
The little corner, home to the dogs. Around are all the parked cars.
Mr. Lee's strays stay close to his work area.
I was a little nervous when I saw rows of cars parked with the dogs running around wildly! The streets in Taiwan are very congested and it is fascinating that these dogs are so street wise! They have been crossing all these streets without any injury all these years!
Mr. Lee is very neat and dignified. I asked him how much he charges to polish a pair of man's shoes and to my surprise, he replied , "NT200! Gosh! I had just bought a pair of very nice pumps for NT100/-. In Taiwan, it really depends on where you spend your money. My elder sister was deterred from shopping because she found that most of the things in Taiwan are so expensive ...... of course, she had looked at the price tags in Sogo and huge departmental stores.
I shopped in smaller shops and stalls along MRT lines. I also bought things from the night markets. I bought a leather wallet for only NT390 when it used to cost NT3,500/-!! I guess, it is the convenience that tourists enjoy to leave their shoes with Mr. Lee for polishing while they stay at the hotel. His business seems to be quite brisk, although at times it would be slower.
Mr. Lee keeps the dogs really clean. I respect his committment to his dogs. I bought some canned dog food from nearby Seven 11, and gave him the cans of food.
Even up in the mountain of Wulai, dogs could be seen moving around freely. I guess, in general, the Taiwanese are more tolerant of dogs. I notice that the fur of dogs tend to be thicker, as the weather in Taiwan is so much cooler than in Singapore. For those dogs with less thick furs, they are often dressed up in stylish doggie clothings to keep them warm. Really cute!
I was also quite amused when I realised that Taiwanese like to call their female pets, "Chu Chu". In all, I came across 5 female dogs by this name. One of the staff at the hotel also brought his parrot to the hotel one day. He told me the name of the parrot is Chu Chu!
I dream of the day when dogs in Singapore can move around freely on leash with their owners at the airport, mrt, shopping centres, etc. "Fat hope", said Jerlynn, my blogger friend of http://idyllism.blogspot.com
Gan Chau
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