There are several reasons I am happy that Buster is a Chihuahua and not a Great Dane or some other huge beast of a dog. (Additionally there are some reasons that I’m unhappy he’s a Chihuahua but we’ll get to those eventually).
First off, he’s small. When he was a puppy I would stick him in my sweatshirt pocket while I went grocery shopping and he would pop his head out every now and then-which was good, because then it looked more like there was just a puppy in my pocket and less like I had a stomach tumor.
Second of all he’s cute. This let’s us get away with a lot more, like taking him places that I know dogs aren’t allowed to be in. But small and cute is a winning combination. It’s like Buster is the Jessica Simpson of dogs-he’s talentless but people still like him because he’s blonde. So I take him to the movies in my purse, or to Forever 21, or the Pacific Mall in Richmond to go get some Vietnamese food.
Let me start off by saying I don’t spend much time in Richmond. Or any, really, I just go over the bridge on my way to Berkeley and grumble about having to pay $5 on my way home. That’s mostly because it’s one of the most dangerous cities in California, right after Oakland. But when one of my co-workers, Callan (who is small and blonde and basically resembles my dog), invited me to try pho for the first time, I wasn’t going to say no based on mere location.
Callan gets off the sketchiest exit ever that looks like a road that heads out and drops off in the middle of the bay. Some how a city emerges and she pull up to what looks like a mall. She didn’t explain that she was taking us to a completely Asian mall in order to get this food. And by completely Asian, I mean we were the only ones speaking English in the whole place. In addition to sushi restaurants, Sanrio shops, and a 99 Ranch market where you can pick out your very own live fish from a tank in the back and have them kill it right in front of you (hey at least you know it’s fresh), there is also an over 18 club complete with karaoke in this mall. It was hopping too because everyone was puking outside of it.
As racist as it sounds I was beginning to have qualms about having brought Buster. My uncle told me a story about a Chinese restaurant in Petaluma that got shut down because they served dog and cat in the back. Not that there’s much meat on Buster but he’s small and probably easy to skin if you really wanted to try.
But he’s surprisingly obedient when he wants to be and took a nap in my bag while we ate the most delicious pho ever. I don’t recommend going there if you are vegetarian however-it took about 10 minutes to explain that I would not like any meat in my dinner, thank you and once it came it still had meat in it. I just gave it to Buster.
After dinner we went to go get bubble tea. Ah, bubble tea. One of the few reasons I miss living in Orange County. You can only get it where there is a large Asian population (read-not Sonoma County) and as far as I know, Richmond is the closest place. Damn it. If you’ve never had it, stop reading this and go get some now because it is delicious. The menus are always extensive and no matter the combination it’s always amazing. I fed a boba ball to Buster (I hid him again though-Buster boba could be a new thing) and he wasn’t such a fan, but if you go I recommend the Thai ice tea with small boba.
Bottom line: do not bring small dogs to large Asian malls. I mean overall it was cool. What other mall can you get sushi, go clubbing, sing karaoke, get your hair cut, buy clothes, and go grocery shopping all in one place? But everyone who saw him wanted to eat him or dress him up like Hello Kitty, neither of which either of us was really interested in participating in. So Richmond isn’t for us. But I think we already knew that.
Quite a cultural journey.
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