The following is an image of my best friend from childhood.
His name was Ming Toi Tu, and he was a bona fide, purebred toy Pekingese who was descended from a long line of award winning show dogs. He had his papers, but he wasn’t snooty about it. Ming didn’t look down his nose at anyone.
My parents ruined his chances to be a show dog himself by having him “fixed,” but he still thought he was quite a stud. Nobody had the heart to tell him otherwise. This proud little dog strutted with a manly gait, his tail curled high over his back and his chest stuck out as far as it would go. This dog was no pampered pooch, and he wouldn’t sit still for primping. He loved to get out and romp around. He liked to run with the big dogs. Ming Toi was afraid of nothing.
Early in his life, this miniature mutt deemed himself my “protector,” and he was at my side constantly. If you have had a loyal dog before, you know exactly what he was like. If another dog approached me (even a huge Great Dane) Ming Toi was known to leap up and latch on to the larger dog’s jowls. Like a snapping turtle, he wouldn’t let go until lightning struck, or until I pulled him away. No one else could ever unclamp his jaws.
Now, my Daddy thought that Ming was “stupid,” but that was just plain wrong. I figure it this way: the dog knew how to get people to open doors for him and how to get them to feed him. How stupid could that be? But I have to admit that the pup was a clown. When I was little, he even let me dress him up like one. More than that, though, Ming Toi was as stubborn as a mule.
This dog followed every footstep that I took, and when I was a teenager that was a lot of steps. My favorite thing to do when my family went to Paw Paw Creek Resort on Lake Texoma every weekend was to take long walks in the woods and along the shores of the lake. Ming Toi was my constant companion.
As we walked, I always searched on the ground for rocks. I don’t know why anymore, but I was fascinated by the stones I found on my walks. Near Texoma, it wasn’t unusual to find petrified wood or fossils of sea creatures. I still have a bowl full of rocks that I deemed worthy of bringing back to the house. Often I picked up a rock and decided I didn’t want it. I tossed it back on the ground and Ming Toi always picked it up in his mouth and trotted along behind me. Usually he carried the rock all the way home.
One day, I unintentionally confused him. As we picked our way along the rocky beach not far from our trailer, I tossed a rock I was carrying into the shallow water. Ming dropped the rock that he already had in his mouth and walked out into the water. With his bulging eyes wide open, that dog ducked his head into the water to retrieve it. He brought it back and laid it on the shore next to the other rock he had carried. While he had his head underwater, Ming had evidently noticed other rocks in the sand. He want back into the water and brought out another rock and dropped it beside the first two. For the next hour, I sat on the banks of the lake watching and giggling as this silly dog returned to the water to fetch rock after rock. He brought each one back and put it in his pile. I called to him, but he wouldn’t be distracted from his mission, whatever on earth that mission might have been. He kept after it with single minded purpose and would not give up until he had finished whatever it was that he felt he had to do.
At last Ming Toi’s little pea brain registered that he had done his task. With a goofy grin on his face, and dripping wet, Ming Toi crawled into my lap. After a contented sigh about a job well done, he closed his eyes and fell asleep. I had to carry the poor little fella home, because he was all tuckered out.
Ming Toi has been in “Doggy Heaven” for more almost three decades now. I haven’t had a dog in several years, and I guess I’m a “cat lady” now. Tonight, sitting in a lonesome hotel room, I’ve been thinking about that little buddy of mine. I miss his unwavering devotion and his unconditional love, because cats just don’t give that up to a human.
And, tonight I’m envying his single minded attention to a task. I wish I could muster the same.
Technorati Tags: Pekingese, dog
OK. This one brought me out. We too have a pekingese. We bought him in a market in the Himalayas, right next to the vegetables. No papers, though. And he is just as you’ve described. He doesn’t know he’s little! Just a fierce little thing. We moved to Thailand after we got him, and he actually took on two St. Bernard “puppies”. He had to go to the vet for that one.
After we moved back to the states for awhile, (to Weatherford) a black retriever nambed Bo kind of adopted us, and our dog didn’t like it. He went at Bo once, and Bo decided he had had enough and sat on him. He warmed up to Bo after that.
They have such dominant spirits in those little bodies that you really do think they might be able to protect you from a bigger dog.
By the way, ours is named Vuji. It’s a minority language in China and it means “snowing.” It’s a verb, I know, but it seems to fit. ha! Oh, and I know exactly what you mean by their little smiles. My daughter is holding him on our blog.
Still loving your blog!
Stacy
Thank you for visiting, Stacy! I am missing getting to visit other people terribly!! I’ve always loved your blog, too! Pekingese are such wonderful critters. He was probably the best dog I ever had. I always maintained that, with that smashed in nose, he was so ugly he was cute. Give Vuji a pat on the head from a fellow Pekingese lover.~skt
Lovely story! I never had a puppy, my parents didn,t want
well I owned a little chicken, but when it died it was a terrible experience. 
It doesn’t matter if your pet is a dog, a chicken or a turtle…we get emotionally attached, don’t we? I’m sorry you missed the joy of having a dog, though. There isn’t anything quite like it.~skt
That made me cry Shelly, and made me remember all the wonderful pets I’ve loved and lost.
Well, I didn’t mean to make you cry, Sandee! But, if we can remember those pets and smile about their antics, that’s a good thing. I’m smiling about Ming.
~skt
Oh I love your story about your childhood best friend. What a delightful time you two had at the lake that day!
I was lucky enough to have a dog companion for 11 years. Annie Rosa Lee Dog. She was a ‘love’ puppy - her mom was a papered sheltie and her dad a papered black lab. Annie Rosa came to live with me when she was 9 weeks-old and we were inseparable for 11 wonderful years. She (in her canine form) has been gone now for 6 years and I think of her daily. I loved to smell her feet and would sing a little diddy to her “puppy paws, puppy paws, puppy paws” (you’d have to be there to receive the full enjoyment. I’d sing this to her while taking in big whiffs ~ they smelled so Annie Rose’ish! To this day, when I close my eyes I can go back to those moments and I get a whiff of her puppy paws. Oh, how I miss her!
Thank you for sharing about your best buddy. junemoon
Aww, junemoon, your Annie Rose sounds wonderful. I love “puppy smell”, too. Isn’t it amazing how smells are so linked to our memories?~skt
Ming Toi was adorable, and I think you did learn the lesson he taught you, you do get the job done. He knew to stop and sleep… think your mind went there not to tell you to be more single minded, but to take a few minutes and just be, you have worked so hard in the last months. You know he knew there were more rocks in that water!
I’m sorry you miss him so much, and I hope in between missing him yesterday you were smiling at all those old memories.
I sat with our son’s boxer outside today, lost in thought, just stroking her back, enjoying her devotion to me and the perfect weather — until Leon came back from school and she got so excited I couldn’t hold her back when he came in the door. I think I was jilted.
I miss Ming, Marcia, but I was smiling thinking about him. A boxer? Oh, we had a boxer once, and they are such lovely dogs. What’s this with Leon drawing her attention from you? I hate being jilted.~skt
God bless Ming. That dog knew when to take a break…and he knew when to ‘rock & roll’..He was just trying to tell you that you gotta rest sometimes and then you gotta ‘rock’.
Rock on, Shelly!
I’m a sucker for a good dog story and an even bigger sucker for the dogs themselves too! When I was six months old, my Mom’s younger brother brought home a dog for me -part collie, part some kind of sheep dog I think. That was Lady and I shared her for 12 years with my grandfather. After she died, a year after, I brought home a puppy our minister “gave” any of the kids in our confirmation class who wanted one that year! My Mom was none too happy about that but finally gave in and let me keep this black little mutt with a white diamond under his chin. I had him for five of the best years of my life! Sweet, silly, lovable, cute as can be, funny and just a wonderful companion the likes of which I have yet to find since 1963 when he died! I’ve had several other dogs since then - have two cats now -but have never had a dog quite like my little old Duffy!
Those dogs become such a large part of our lives, don’t they? I’m sure Lady was special to you, even though you “shared” her, but it sound like Duffy was for you what Ming was for me. Newer dogs in our lives don’t get much chance against a memory, do they?~skt
shelly, i love little ming! he was so cute and seemed so full of life. you know my little coco is a pekingese. she does some of the cutest things i’ve ever seen a dog do. they really have the cutest little personalities too. i’ve met so many people over the years who have never forgotten their pekingese even long after they pass. they have a way of holding on to your heart. i think it’s time for you to get another pekingese! =)
great story! thanks so much for sharing!
I’ve seen that video you posted of Coco, and that’s when I decided I had to write about Ming, so thanks for sparking my imagination! Sure takes me awhile to get around to things, doesn’t it! YOUR pekingese is adorable, too. But, nah, I can’t get another pekingese. We have no back fence (and we have coyotes and panthers), my husband isn’t fond of dogs (though he adores cats), and I travel too much. Sigh. Guess I’ll have to make do with the fe-lions.~skt
That was a lovely story about a truly devoted friend. I never had a dog and always wanted one. As with you, I am a cat lady now. They have their personality quirks as well.
I love my cats to pieces, Jamie, and wouldn’t trade for them (well, I might trade for Walter on nights I want to sleep
). Having a dog is a delightful experience, but I don’t have dogs now because they require too much attention. The dogs I have had couldn’t just spend time alone…they had to be right where I was. Cats are more like an independent “companion.” Dogs are more like children.~skt
Nice writing there Shelly. I;m impressed by ming going after the rock. Any dog I’ve ever had would have looked at it underwater but never gone under for it
Esp. if it was cold.
Thanks, Damien. I have no idea what his little mind was telling him, but his sole goal was to bring them out and make a stack. I’ve had dogs that would fetch if you tempted them, but this seemed to not have any rhyme or reason to it. Go figure~skt
What a lovely story, Shelly. What a heart.
Oh, SusieJ, he did have heart. He was just the most fun. As much as I love the cats, they don’t compare. I guess I love them in a “different way.” ~skt
Wonderful story. Those little rascals can sure get under your skin. I wish I could live up to the lofty opinion our dogs have of me.