Saturday, July 3, 2010

Lassie: 1868

A draper at Tungkwan had a black dog, who was sagacious and fond of his master. On one occasion the draper while returning from market, where he had been selling his cloth, was attacked, robbed, and half killed. The dog followed the thief, and never left him until he went into a house, when the sagacious animal ran to his master's brother and made so many extraordinary demonstrations that the brother was induced to follow the dog and was led to the spot where the wounded man lav. The dog still appeared dissatisfied and eventually induced the draper's brother to follow him to the house of the thief. When they reached it the dog pinned the thief by the leg, the cloth was found in the house and the rascal was thus brought to justice.
--From The China Magazine--

I can't tell if this really happened, but I know people like these type of stories. They like imagining their pets as intelligent, almost human. Isn't this vanity? If your dog likes you, and your dog is intelligent, that means you must be good because an intelligent creature likes you. I suppose this also explains the "my child is so smart"  phenomenon, and it probably carries over to people's feeling about their friends.

Everyone I like probably isn't as nice as I think they are!

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