The Little Shiba With Red Wings
About twelve years ago, a really wonderful and strange thing happened. A Shiba Inu mother and father were expecting their first puppies. When the three puppies were born they discovered that one of the babies had a small pair of red wings. Both the parents and their owners were shocked. No one had ever heard of such a thing. At first there was little different about the puppy. Then when he was two months old the owners let them out into the big back yard. He was chasing his brother, when the wind caught his wings, like a kite, and the puppy found himself on top of the tree in the center of the yard. His father had to climb up and bring him down. Once the puppy realized he could fly there was no stopping him. He took off and flew everywhere and his parents and owners were kept too busy chasing after that naughty puppy! Finally the owners had had enough. They put a cement block on the center of the yard and fastened a thirty foot line to it. Now the puppy could still fly in circles, but he could not escape. A teacher heard about the puppy and thought that there must be "something" very special about the baby. She was convinced to take him and try to make a therapy dog out of him. He visited with her for the first time, at aa fourth grade classroom. The Asian students were primarily Mungh, and they voted to name hom Cheng Kee. He was a naughty puppy still and flew out the door every chance he got. He was so friendly though, that if he saw people or another dog outside, he would fly down to meet them. His owner would yell, "Catch that dog!" and so was able to catch him.
He started going to school with her right away at a Level 5 EBD program,and always had playtime with the children, which he loved. He was also in classes, but was very silly and did not take it seriously. His owner despaired of him every learning enough obedience to be cerified as a therapy dog. Then one night, something awful happened. When his owner let him out, he saw a rabbit. He ran at it and hit the end of the line just right. He snapped loose and was off. His owner was frantic when she realized he was gone. She drove around and called, put up hundreds of flyers, called all the shelters and even the rangers at the National Wildlife Refuge. It was right below her home. He had been visiting at a JHS and playing with the students on their breaks from special ed classes. The next night she had almost given up, when a policeman came to the door and asked if she was missing a dog. It was Cheng Kee and she was so happy she cried. She never knew what happened to him on his outting, but after that he began to take his training seriously. They both worked very hard and Cheng Kee passed his TDI test the day before his owner's daughter graduated from college. He went to summer school nearly every day. He visited a Children's Home every weekend. He went to a Care Center twice a week, a hospital twice a week and a treament center once a week. He and his owner were very busy. The day he recieved his first certificate for fifty therapy hours completed was a very happy one. He and his owner came home from a visit and she let him out into the yard. As she watched his wings fell off. Cheng Kee hadn't used them for a long time. She walked out an picked them up to hang on her wall. She realized that Cheng Kee no longer needed the wings to make people see that he was special.
