The adventures of a Shiba owner

 Kikko, Momo, Sasha e Hina (from: www.caesonline.com)

My love for Shiba dogs started the day I saw a lost dog notice pasted on the lamppost in Botafogo neighborhood, Rio de Janeiro.“What the cutest thing! It looks like a little fox.” was all I could think, while admiring the picture on the poster in amazement.That phrase I would hear countless times over the next few years.

I hadn't seen the movie “Always by your side”, with Richard Gere.This film tells the story of a dog who waits for his owner to return from work every day at the train station.Even after its owner died.They used a Shiba to play the role of the dog as a puppy.With the lead artist and the dog looking so gorgeous, the movie could only become a hit that everyone seems to have seen (except me).This was the first curiosity I discovered when I researched the breed on the internet.

The breed almost disappeared when nuclear explosions and famine ravaged Japan at the end of IIWW.But a Japanese man has dedicated himself to finding the few surviving specimens of Shiba in the country.Nowadays there are cafes in Tokyo where countless Shiba puppies roam free with the sole purpose of allowing customers to meet this breed.Nice, isn’t it?

Shortly after the lost dog poster event, there were already six shibas living in my street and surroundings.We, the happy fathers and mothers of shibas, created a WhatsApp community to arrange a daily meeting every day in the square and let our dogs socialize freely for a few minutes in the soccer field.A very carioca solution to the scarcity of spaces dedicated to dogs.A solution that didn't seem to please the dads and their kids who wanted to play ball.I am so sorry, but the last time I bothered to go to the nearest off-leash dog park I ended up in the hospital with a broken collarbone and a cut on my head, the victim of a robbery.

Now living in the south of Brazil, I belong to a WhatsApp community of Porto Alegre Shiba owners where I only know one person.More than a hundred participants exchange dozens of messages a day, with photos and tips on medicine, training, accessories, which is very good when you have a dog of a breed that is still little known by the city's veterinarians.That's how I found out that there is a group that sends their shibas to daycare every day, with their little backpacks (?!).Among the countless photos exchanged in the community every day, the dog´s asshole is almost always covered by a modest little flower.Lack of what to do?It's not that!What fault do we have if we fall on all fours for these little animals so full of personality?

My Shiba systematically ignores all attempts to approach the other dogs when she takes me for a walk in the street and I follow, peacefully pulled by the leash in the direction she chooses.She, who captivates everyone with her smile and her independence, had already left the veterinarian with her mouth open and a syringe in her hand when she began to give a series of high-pitched and almost human screams.Poor doctor, she had never seen a shiba before.When the office door opens, invariably all eyes in the waiting room turn to us, incredulous that the poor dog is all right and in one piece.Typical Shiba behavior.

As for the dog on the poster, don't worry.I found out later that the Shiba had desperately escaped the car he was in when he was robbed.He spent days wandering the streets of the center and south of Rio, but thanks to social media, he was found and returned safe and sound to his owner.