I once had a dog named Jip. Now, it appears, her name is "Chanel." That's what her new owners named her. Oh well. She belongs to them now. But to me she will always be Jip.
I have had Jip for eight years. I adopted her as a pup when I was living and working in China. I guess that very fact should have rung some alarm bells: People who like to travel might want to think twice before getting a dog. Still, I wanted a little Chinese dog, and I got one. For the next eight years we were firm friends. I brought her back to Canada, we lived with my parents for a while, I took her to live with me in an apartment while I worked on my B.Ed., and finally we landed in a suburb outside Montreal, where she learned that a dog will inevitably fall into the background in any family scene where there is a baby.
I suppose it was time for her to begin her retirement. I had been thinking about it for a long time and finally came to a decision.
I found the perfect home for her. A wonderful couple living in a small house in the country. The lady is retired, and both are exceedingly fond of dogs. Jip didn't even seem to mind my leaving her with them. Not even so much as a whimper escaped her as I bent to give her one last kiss on the nose. She seemed content.
Jip was a handfull. It took me a year to train her and even after all that hard work she would occasionally rebel. But I loved her and she proved to be a faithful companion. She also provided me with a lot of laughs. I will therefore share some of the most amusing "Jip stories" I have kept stored in my memory:
In the neighborhood where I now live also lives a tiny black dog named Snoopy. A very ill-behaved dog, as it turns out. One day as I was walking Jip in the park I noticed Snoopy playing with his owners. He wasn't on a leash, which is strictly against the rules. Jip found a shaded spot beneath a tree to do her business. As I waited and Jip squatted, I suddenly heard a man yell: "Snoopy! Snoopy! Here!" Oh no, I thought to myself. I knew what was coming. I had barely time to turn around when out of nowhere came Snoopy, teeth bared and snarling. Jip looked up in time to see Snoopy jump on her back just as she was mid-shit. As I made up my mind not to get involved and just let those two work things out on their own, Snoopy's owner came over, at a very slow pace, to retrieve his dog. "Sorry," he grinned. Sure. How would he like to have someone jump on him while he's sitting on the toilet? The man grabbed Snoopy and tore him off Jip, who by then was livid. I led her away; she no longer seemed interested in finishing her business.
From the first time my husband and I gave our newborn baby her bath, Jip was in the washroom with us. The second or third time, she got a special treat. As I held my baby over the tub while her daddy washed her hair, she suddenly decided to pee all over my hand. It trickled down my arm, onto the counter and down to the floor. Jip immediately pounced on it and drank - as I mopped my hand and cringed.
Only a few weeks after I adopted Jip I changed jobs; I was offered a teaching position at the Taizhou TV college in Jiao Jiang. Soon after we got settled in our new apartment at the teachers' residence, one of my colleagues invited me to her apartment for some tea. She seemed a little shy and embarrassed to be speaking with a foreigner - there were only about six of us in Jiao Jiang at the time, including two young children. I tried to show her that there was nothing scary about me, and eventually she seemed to feel more at ease. It was at this very point that Jip, who I had brought along with me, ran out of my colleagues bathroom, proudly brandishing a very dirty maxi-pad in her mouth that she had obviously just pulled out of the waste-basket. My colleague turned red with mortification and bolted after my dog, trying to grab the pad from her. But Jip was too quick, and I practically had to tackle her before we could relieve her of her treasure. "Bad Jip!" I scolded. My colleague never again invited me over for tea.
The first time I spent the night at my husband's house (he was then my boyfriend), I brought Jip along, as I could not leave her alone at my apartment. The next morning, as we were just waking up, Jip jumped on the bed and proceeded to make the most disgusting hacking and gagging noises. As she let out the last gag, followed by a magnificent cough, my husband said: "yaaah ... you're dog's sexy." He had no idea then that dogs in many ways resemble their owners ...
I will miss you, Jip!
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