[Brunvand, 1986]
A woman from La Mesa, California, went to Tijuana, Mexico, to do some shopping. As any visitor to this border town knows, the streets near the shopping areas are populated with stray dogs. The woman took pity on one little stray and offered it a few bites of her lunch, after which it followed her around for the rest of the afternoon.
When it came time to return home, the woman had become so attached to her little friend that she couldn't bear to leave him behind. Knowing that it was illegal to bring a dog across the international border, she hid him among some packages on the seat of her car and managed to pass through the border checkpoint without incident. After arriving home, she gave the dog a bath, brushed his fur, then retired for the night with her newfound pet curled up at the foot of her bed.
When she awoke the next morning, the woman noticed that there was an oozing mucus around the dog's eyes and a slight foaming at the mouth. Afraid that the dog might be sick, she rushed him to a nearby veterinarian and returned home to await word on her pet's condition.
The call soon came. "I have just one question," said the vet. "Where did you get this dog?"
The woman didn't want to get into trouble, so she told the vet that she had found the dog running loose in the street near her home in La Mesa.
But the vet didn't buy it. "You did not find this dog in La Mesa. Where did you get the dog?"
The woman nervously admitted having brought the dog across the border from Tijuana. "But tell me, doctor," she said. "What is wrong with my dog?"
His reply was brief and to the point. "First of all, it's not a dog — it's a Mexican sewer rat. And second, it's dying."
[Collected on the Internet, 1997]
A friend told me a story that couldn't possibly be true. She knows of a woman who recently vactioned of the Gulf Coast of Florida with her family. While vactioning they befriended a stray dog. It stayed with them while they vactioned and they treated the dog like any other pet: the dog slept with them, shared food, etc. The kids had grown attached to the dog and when it was time to return home they wanted to take the dog with them. The mother insisted they could not take the dog because they already had a dog and cat at home. The kids won out and they took the dog home with them.
They returned to their normal routines, the kids went to school and the parents went off to work. Upon returning home from work the mother found her family pets horribly mutlilated and dead. The stray however was fine. She took the stray to the vet who couldn't find anything wrong with the dog but wanted to keep the dog and run some tests. The vet calls back a hour or so later to say that the dog was not a dog, but a Korean Rat. My friend who told me this story said that the vet couldn't tell it was a rat by looking at the "dog" and only knew because of the bloodwork. They say the "dog" looked like a long-haired wiener dog.
[Collected on the Internet, 1993]
True story, as told to me by a friend to whom it was told by a co-worker who is the son of these people.
They went sailing in the Bay in San Francisco last weekend. All of a sudden, they noticed a little dog frantically swimming in the water. They rescued the little tike, dried him off and he instantly fell asleep. After docking, they put the little creature in their car and took it home, made a bed for it with blankets in a basket and went to bed.
In the morning, they woke up and came downstairs to find that the little guy had chewed through the kitchen wall into the garage. Worried that the dog might not be as friendly this morning, called the SPCA to come and get him. The guy went after the dog with the "stick with a rope loop at the end of it" that dog catchers use to catch strays. But instead of catching it, the animal fell to the ground dead. Shocked, the "parents" asked the guy what happened. He explained that he broke it's neck! The "parents" became upset that the guy had been so reckless with a life. He just looked at them and said "Did you really want to keep a Hong Kong wharf rat as a pet?"
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