When I saw the cute pictures on the blog yesterday of Yumi-sensei's cats, I thought it would be a good idea to put some photos of dogs on here!! Dogs and cats are probably the most popular kinds of pets. In fact, we have many expressions in English using these two kinds of animals. Today because of the typhoon, "it is raining cats and dogs" right now in Sendai. That means it's raining very hard. You've maybe heard that phrase before! Also, we say that "cats have nine lives". They often fall from high places or have some serious accidents, and sometimes get into huge fights. But they don't die easily in those types of situations, so it seems that they "almost" die 9 times in their lifetime. In addition, can you guess what "He is sick as a dog" means? It's usually used when someone is really not feeling well, and coughing a lot. That person's coughs might sound like a dog that is barking again and again. Woof! Woof! Woof-woof-woof!!
The dog shown above is called a "Shetland sheepdog". The first dog I ever owned was one of these kinds of dogs. She was a very clever dog. Shetland is the name of a group of islands which are part of Scotland. My great-grandfather was from Scotland, so I was really happy to have a Scottish-type dog like her. I was about 8 years old when she became my family's pet.
Do you know this kind of dog, shown here? It's a "Lhasa apso". Lhasa is the capital of Tibet. The second dog I owned was 50% Lhasa apso and 50% terrier. Her name was "Angel", because she was usually such a sweet dog. She probably looked more like a terrier than a lhasa apso, but her fur was quite long (like the dog above). And she was white (like the dog below).
Terriers often enjoy hunting. One time, Angel killed a kind of bird she had been hunting. My family was out at the time. But when we came home, we saw that Angel had put the dead bird in front of the house so we could see what she had done. She looked so happy. I think she was trying to tell us, "I did this for you!!"
And this is a Shiba dog, of course! It's one of the most famous breeds of Japanese dogs. In English, we say there are two kinds of people. You are either a "dog person" or a "cat person". Even if you don't have either pet, we believe that everyone has a certain personality that either matches best with dogs or with cats. Although I do enjoy being with cats from time to time, I'm definitely a dog person! Which type are you??
- Peter 
