Georgie Our Lion Dog

Whose that little carpet at rest from flying all over?

Why it's Georgie, our five and a half pound pup at 18 weeks.

Cecil selected her from a litter of four.

Georgie is partially potty trained. She holds it until we take her outdoors but she hasn't learned to bark and tell us she needs to go outside yet. She sleeps in our bedroom in her doggy bed. Her itching and snoring sounds were noisy at first, but now I'm getting used to them.

Between six or seven in the morning, David or I get up and take her outside. Fortunately, the lack of rain has been good in that she doesn't get all wet and muddy on her underside.

Georgie likes to hop upon pillows; I think to get herself at the same level as us. When she is reclining on a purple velvet throne, it strikes me like she's been bred for aristocracy, and at one point in time, her ancestors were.

Chet-the-Jet poses as a tough guy while holding Georgie, our lion dog.

Shih Tzu: I've seen it pronounced as: sheet-soo or sheed-zoo; but shit-zoo is how people say it out of ignorance. It is believed that the dogs were originally bred by Tibetan monks who mixed the Lhasa Apso and the Pekingese and gifted the dogs to Chinese royalty who apparently revered them. The dogs represented the epitome of luxury. In places like Peking, perhaps their main purpose may have been to sooth the heart of the person petting their silken fur, like human hair; or perhaps they warmed someone's feet at the foot of a bed.

While I watch t.v., Georgie prefers to lie on my feet and it's really cozy; but I wonder: is it because of her breeding because that's wild.

I'd like to think that our Shih Tzu represents a living manifestation of the Buddhist lion god. This is pure folly, but I'd like to share how I arrived at this idea.

Getting Georgie inspired Cecil and I to learn more about the Himalayas and Tibet. Apparently, the name Shih Tzu, translates "as Lion Dog, so named because the dog was bred to resemble "the lion as depicted in traditional oriental art,"^[1] such as the Chinese guardian lions."

A Wiki article stated: "Reference to guardian lions as dogs in Western cultures may be due to the...misidentification of the guardian lion figures as representing certain Chinese dog breeds such as the... Shih Tzu."

Through my research (which I always share aloud with my family) I began to mistakenly associate the guardian lions in Asian and Indian art as representative of the Shih Tzu. Later, when I discovered that the lions are a symbol strength, power, and regality in the Buddhist religion; and that lions were revered like a god in both China and India, I jumped to the conclusion that Georgie is our Buddhist lion dog. My husband doesn't concur.

Awhile back Cecil and I visited the Asian Art Museum's special exhibition: The Marharaja: The Splendor of Indian Royal Courts in San Francisco. We specifically looked for lions in the art and artifacts and of course we saw them.

People often ask me how we went from owning a St. Bernard to a Shih Tzu. I don't have an exact answer. One day I spotted a man walking his two dogs in our neighborhood. I shouted to Cecil in the backseat of our VW Eurovan, "Those dogs look like little lions!" I stopped the car and pulled over and asked the fellow what kind of dogs they were while Cecil got out to greet them. Well, they turned out to be Georgie's parents. Who knows whether fate, Dharma, or coincidence brought us together that day. At some point I realized that I wanted a dog I could pick up, hold, move, and care for easily. Georgie gives back just as much or more than we give to her.

Although she's a dog, we have a new friend and family member; and whether she acts like royalty or is from royalty doesn't really matter. We love her.