Pet King

Currently, there was no globally adopted standard when it came to differentiating between different breeds of dogs. If we followed the American Kennel Club’s standards, pet dogs would generally be categorized into seven different groups: sporting dogs, hound dogs, working dogs, terriers, toy dogs, herding dogs, and non-sportings. These categories were formed in order to make competitions easier to handle, but dogs were generally split into two types: working dogs and non-working dogs.

Working dogs were dogs that were able to assist humans in their daily life or work. The others fell into the non-working category. Most of them were small breeds, like Pekingese, Chihuahuas, and Pomeranians. Other than accompanying humans and providing joy, they didn’t have much use.

Simply put, what working dogs could do, non-working dogs couldn’t. But what non-working dogs could do, working dogs could, too.

When humans first domesticated dogs, their sole purpose was to breed them for working purposes, to be the greatest ally to humans in the fight between homo sapiens and nature. With the development and growth of industrialization and tool-making, the need for working dogs had decreased, thus giving rise to non-working dogs.

Within the umbrella of working dogs, they could be further classified. For example, hounds that helped people hunt, herders that helped humans keep an eye on their livestock, service dogs that helped humans with everyday tasks, snow-sled dogs that were in charge of transport in the bone-chilling cold, guard dogs that risked their lives every day for their owners, and specialized military and K9s. Some breeds might have fallen under several categories. German Shepherds, for one, were a classic multi-purpose breed. They could be herd dogs, guard dogs, or police dogs.

After hearing Blackie’s explanation, Zhang Zian immediately knew that he needed a guard dog. Only a guard dog would be able to chase away wild animals in a harsh environment, attack intruders, and be able to provide the greatest protection to their owner.

Blackie then asked, “A guard dog? That sounds great, what kind of guard dogs do you provide?”

His gaze swept past Zhang Zian then, looking into the pet shop.

“About that…” Zhang Zian was stumped too.

Just like the netizens had guessed, his shop mostly sold breeds that were most suitable for common families to have. Most of them were small toy breeds. He had some working dogs like Golden Retrievers and Samoyeds, but no one in the cities would buy them in order to make them work. They would mainly keep them as pets.

He didn’t sell the more “aggressive” type of mid to big-sized dogs that he needed, but only those would be able to be a good guard dog in the wild. The needs of dogs within a city and the wilderness were vastly different.

“Why don’t you guys come on in? Let’s not talk while standing outside.” He invited Blackie and Snowy into his shop, giving the impressive Mercedes Benz G-class another jealous look.

“That’s great, I’d wanted to see what Famous was all about too,” Blackie excitedly explained.

Snowy knew how Zhang Zian was. Seeing that he hadn’t outright rejected them, but instead invited them into the shop, she knew that he had it settled, and relaxed.

But the netizens were assuming the worst of Zhang Zian.

“I knew it, the stingy owner definitely wouldn’t reject a sale that walked right up to his door…”

“I think he’s trying to cook up something. Probably trying to talk him into purchasing a Chihuahua for a guard dog…”

“Don’t speak too soon. Chihuahuas are at least better guard dogs than the stupid sled dogs! They can’t even protect their own arse!”

“What a tasteful comment…”

Snowy has been to the shop several times, and immediately spotted a new member added to the team with one look, squealing excitedly, “Wow! Mr. Owner! Where did you get Tom?”

“Tom? Who’s Tom?”

Everyone—Blackie, the employees, even the audience in the live-stream room—were all stunned. Who was that?

Snowy giggled, pointing at Vladimir. “Isn’t this Tom?”

Vladimir was lazing in a corner, and the cream kitten kept climbing onto his back, pulling his tail, unable to sit still at all.

That night, he had brought the defenseless and weak cream kitten back into the pet shop. Since then, the cream kitten had been just like a parasite. No matter how you swatted at it, it refused to go away.

“What the meow! What are you all looking at me for?”

He was still recharging up on his energy for what he had to do afterward, but he suddenly felt everyone’s eyes on him. His eyes opened then, surveying the people around him annoyedly, not knowing what had gotten into them.

Lu Yiyun kindly corrected her. “Snowy, this cat’s called Vladimir. He was brought back by the owner from a friend he had in the capital, he’s not called Tom.”

“No, no, no, this really is Tom, he looks exactly like him! Don’t you guys think so?” Snowy squatted down, observing Vladimir with the utmost interest.

“Christ, who is Tom?” Vladimir was extremely confused, wanting to go rest in another spot. He wasn’t too picky about his resting spot anyway, as long as he got to lie down.

“Tom… Is it the ‘My Talking Tom’?” Wang Qian guessed.

Snowy shook her head.

Instead, it was Zhang Zian who reacted first. “Tom… you mean Tom from Tom and Jerry?”

“Yes! Don’t they look alike?” Snowy pointed at Vladimir again. “Just look closely!”

Everyone was just confused.

Zhang Zian chuckled, “Trust you to think of that. But you’re right. Tom in Tom and Jerry does look like Vladimir. To be more accurate, he was modeled after the Russian Blue.”

The employees, clients, and even the audience in the live stream heard something they had never heard before, and they knew that it was time to learn some general knowledge. No one interrupted, and they quietly waited for Zhang Zian to further explain himself. Even the comments in the live stream had slowed to a trickle.

Zhang Zian didn’t disappoint everyone either. “I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t know about the cartoon, Tom and Jerry, right? But very few people know that Tom was actually made from the Russian Blue. If you recall, did Tom have a blue-grey coat and long limbs in the cartoon? Most importantly, Tom had green eyes with golden edges. That is definitely a Russian Blue trait.”

Even though Russian Blues didn’t have white claws, Tom did in the cartoon. This point had been taken by the English Shorthair supporters with a death grip to prove that Tom was an English Shorthair. But this was their only evidence. Other than this, all of Tom’s other traits were miles and miles away from an English Shorthair, and was instead extremely close to a Russian Blue’s.

Besides, as an American cartoon, and a cartoon extremely popular during the Cold War, there was an unavoidable bias shaping the cartoon. Tom played a stupid bully in the cartoon, while Jerry was a sharp and likable character. There was no dispute over who was more popular. Even now, most of the people being the “bad guys” were either East European firearms smugglers or Russian Intelligence.