the screaming demon dog

This is not the dog in question, but is just one of the many dogs here in Taiwan
that are treasured and pampered by the Taiwanese

Taiwanese LOVE their dogs. I thought America was a dog-owners paradise, but Taiwan has got it beat hands-down. Dogs here often don't get walked, they get carried....in arms, in bags, and sometimes in strollers. If you see someone pushing a stroller down the street, it's not guaranteed there is a child inside. I've seen dogs, cats, even rabbits.

Dogs here in Taiwan wear clothes, bows and get their fur shaved all kinds of funky ways when the hot weather hits. My favorite is when they shave the golden retrievers leaving only the fur around the head and the tip of the tail so they look like mini lions.

Dogs are allowed in restaurants and in the train if they are in carriers. One coffee shop nearby the owner's dog regularly sits on one of the tables (I never drink my coffee at that table!). I've even seen dog owners wipe their dogs with toilet paper after they have a nice poo. It is a dog's paradise here. And people love to own the cute little tiny dogs. Other popular ones are golden retrievers and huskies (poor guys! living on a tropical island!)

Because there are so many people in such a tiny space, our neighborhood is packed full of dogs in peoples' apartments. You often hear them barking at night and it's gotten to be just background noise to me now, almost so that I hardly notice it. It blends in with the sounds of traffic, motos, the constant buzz of the Chinese language, the melody of the garbage trucks and the sound of the man driving around selling stinky tofu.

BUT, one of our neighbors got a new dog a few days ago that doesn't just bark, it scream-barks. And I'm pretty sure the owners are never home, so the dog is free to scream-bark all day and alllllll.night.long. Oh my goodness.

I'm not an angry person. I have lived in so many cultures and so many different places that I can deal with a lot of things as they come. But this dog is a constant "anger button" pusher. Last night I closed my window, turned on the fan, put ear plugs in and still the scream-barking echoed through my brain. My roommates and I all emerged this morning from our rooms, bleary-eyed and immediately started venting about our corporately horrible nights' sleep due to the demon-dog down the street.

And here's the fun part about cross-cultural living. In America, I march myself over and tell my neighbors quite directly that if they can't control the noise of their demon-dog, I'm going to have to call the cops. I tell them their dog's barking means I can't sleep or study and it's infringing on my personal right to quiet and my own life. Then I file a complaint. etc. I know how to deal with it. But here we debate....should we talk to our neighbors? (Confronting directly in such an indirect culture can really damage relationships). Do we talk to the landlord and make it his problem so he can mediate for us? Can we even voice our frustration or are we supposed to just suck it up as the rest of the community has to? In Afghanistan our neighbors dealt with our dog by throwing pieces of bread soaked with poison over our wall, killing our dog, rather than talking with us.

So, I'm pretty sure the saga will continue. And I have to admit, as much as I wasn't a huge fan of little dogs in the past (I grew up with retrievers and German shepherds as pets) I'm REALLY not a fan of little yappy dogs any more.