The Point of Chihuahuas

I'm not too keen on monkeys, it's true: but generally I like all animals and enjoy looking after them. Like most human beings, I find many baby animals have an "aaaaah" quality. There are many pictures on that wallowing of cuteness, Cute Overload, which make me go "aaaaah" in spite of my best intentions to resist.

The baby animals I like the best are the big ones. Baby elephants, baby rhinos - they're so big and yet they think they're small and caper about like kittens, knocking trees over in the process.

Of course, puppies are generally very loveable - - but they have to be puppies that will grow into a proper kind of dog. Border collies, and all mongrel versions, are my favourites, such as my friend Connie's dog Gemma - half Border collie, half unidentified black dog - who was so good at reading your body language that you could show her off like mad by saying things like "Gemma, could you just run over to that tree, run round it and then come back again?"

But, being Mankind, we couldn't be happy once we'd achieved a few good breeds of dog, could we? Oh, no, we just had to keep going until we came up with the chihuahua.

Here's one photograph that sums up pretty much everything that's wrong with the human race:

Big American car: McDonalds cup: ridiculous breed of dog, bred as a dog for people who can't be bothered with a real one, and who think it's cute and funny to stuff the dog in the cup. Baby real animals doing real things are often both cute and funny. But the dog didn't climb into the cup, did it? This is a pose entirely set up for the camera: the dog isn't enjoying it and neither am I.

If the Interplanetary Court ever sees this photo, they will use it as evidence to send this entire planet to the Recycling Bin, and I don't blame them.