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The Spy and The Puppy Cont. from
Volume 52 - No. 39
by Bruce Krider
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Editor’s Note: Bruce Krider is a past member of the Board of Directors for Palomar Pomerado Health and was Past Chairman. He is also a former hospital administrator and presently serves as an international consultant to hospitals. He is also, as you shall see, a lover of animals, particularly dogs. In addition, he writes a mighty good story.
February 24, 2004: I left San Marcos, California, for my 5th trip to China on business. This trip was to be different. This time, I was scheduled to speak at two separate conferences on western hospital management, one in Shanghai at a conference on hospital management at Ruijun Hospital and another in Wenzhou at a conference at the South Asia International Hotel.
Following the conferences I was off to Zhuhai for a day, then to Haiko on Hainan Island on other business.
My partner, Edward Chen, met me at the Pudong International Airport in Shanghai. The weather was telling at that point. Gray skies, chilly though not “cold” and threatening rain most of the time. On more than one day, we would be caught in downpours which might have had something to do with generating a cold at the end of the trip.
The hotel was one of the old and better known in Shanghai, the Jin Jiang Hotel, a 5 star hotel, once the host to international visitors and diplomats.
My job at the conference was to provide Chinese healthcare professionals a glimpse of western hospital management. That is pretty hard to do in 20 minutes with breaks for translators but I gave some highlights and at the next conference in Wenzhou I would have
September 22, 2022
a half hour and an opportunity to add some more clarification.
On March 1st I flew to Wenzhou where the balance of this article takes place where I spoke at “The Peak Symposium on Modern Hospital Architecture and Development” in 2004.
Wenzhou is a coastal city of about 7 million people. Leather goods are a major industry as well. Westerners are infrequent here. The looks from locals tell you that. Wenzhou is not Beijing or Shanghai where westerners abound. There is not a lot to attract westerners there.
On March 3rd, I had finished my presentation and our group of Americans, together with interpreters who were actually medical students from one of the host hospitals, went shopping. I am not a shopper but unless I wanted to sit and vegetate in the hotel or unless you have some other way to get about, you need to go with groups to venture out.
In Wenzhou it’s a bit tougher to communicate with cab drivers because they are not used to driving for those who don’t speak their own language as in Beijing or Shanghai.
One of the translator/medical residents assigned to our group was Yu Shuru, a 28 year
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The Spy and The Puppy Continued on Page 2
The Spy and The Puppy Cont. from Page 1
old resident in neurology. Shuru spoke not only English due to her studies in Australia but also the local dialect and Mandarin as well. She was the ultimate translator and tour guide.
Shuru and I were walking down a major shopping street and we noticed a little commotion ahead. This 20-something young man, cigarette dangling from his mouth was selling a puppy. He was holding it. Not affectionately, just holding it.
Then, all of a sudden, the vendor just threw the pup into the midst of a busy walkway. Startled pedestrians of all ages were nearly falling trying not to step on this tiny puppy. The puppy, startled, could not have been away from its mother for the first time since birth for more than an hour and was now trying to figure out what to do in this new, overwhelming and bewildering situation which it had never seen. First going this way, then that way, trying to avoid the shoppers as much as they were trying to avoid harming it. Our guess was that the puppy was about a
Give Us This Day Our Daily Chuckle
This week, a compendium of wit, wisdom and neat stuff you can tell at parties. Enjoy!
Harley Davidson is closing many of its plants due to declining sales.
Apparently, the Baby-Boomers all have motorcycles, and Generation X is only buying a very few, and the next generation, the Millennial's, aren’t buying any at all.
A recent study was conducted to find out why. Here are reasons why Millennial s don't ride motorcycles, and why sales are down : 1. Pants won't pull up far enough for them to straddle the seat. 2. Can't get their iPhone to their ear with a helmet on. 3. Can't use 2 hands to eat while driving. 4. They don't get a trophy and a recognition plaque just for buying one. 5. Don't have enough muscle to hold the bike up when stopped. 6 Might have a bug hit them in the month old.
I said to Shuru, “I’m going to buy the puppy.” I was leaving Wenzhou in a day and did not know what I was going to do with a puppy but I did not like the way this was going. I just felt really concerned for the puppy. I thought the first thing which needed to be done is to eliminate an impending disaster.
Shuru said, “Are you sure?’ I said, “Sure.” She asked how much the puppy was. The vendor said, “300 RMB,” about $36 for the puppy.
She turned to me and said, ”No, Bruce, its too much, He wants 300 RMB.” I said, “I don’t care.” I had a U.S. twenty dollar bill, a few hundred dollar bills and a 100 RMB bill. So I gave him the twenty, equal to about 164 RMB and he released the puppy and we went on our way.
I handed the puppy to Shuru and said to the puppy, “Here Pup, go to your Mommy.” I asked her if she could find a home for the puppy. She said, “yes.”
face and then they would need emergency care.. 7. Motorcycles don't have air conditioning. 8. They can't afford one because they spent 12 years in college trying to get a degree in Humanities, Art History, Social Studies, or Gender Studies for which no jobs are available. 9. They are allergic to fresh air. 10. Their pajamas get caught on the exhaust pipes. 11. They might get their hands dirty checking the oil. 12. The handle bars have buttons and levers and cannot be controlled by touch-screen. 13. You have to shift manually and use something called a clutch. 14. It's too hard to take selfies while riding. 15. They don't come with training wheels like their bicycles did. 16. Motorcycles don't have power steering or power brakes. 17. Their nose and eyebrow rings interfere with the face shield. 18. They would have to use leg muscle to back up. 19. When they stop, a light breeze might blow toxic carbon exhaust in their face. 20 It could rain on them and expose them to smog-infested, non-soft water. 21. It might scare their therapy dog, and then the dog would need therapy, and last, but not least, 22. Their man-bun won't fit under a helmet. I thought, “Great, a good outcome to an otherwise potentially bad ending.” (Little did I know what was in store for us.)
As we were walking away, I watched the vendor go back to the side of the street and produce another puppy from a burlap sack and thought, “Oh Jesus, he’s got the whole litter in there.” Well, I really was in no position to do anything with a litter of puppies, leaving the following day. The realization and the futility of it that this one little puppy was but the tip of the iceberg made me sick.
We took the puppy back to the hotel lobby and Shuru went out to get some milk. After all, God knows when the puppy had last eaten. So, I stayed in the lobby of the hotel with my new relative and through the window walls of the hotel watched Shuru run across the street to get a small carton of milk.
Milk in hand, we went up to my hotel room to feed the puppy. I got down one of the coffee cups from the in-room coffee service set up and Shuru squirted about half the
The answer can be found by posing the following question: You're walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children. Suddenly, a Terrorist with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, raises the knife, and charges at you...
You are carrying a Kimber 1911 cal. 45 ACP, and you are an expert shot.
You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family.
What do you do? THINK CAREFULLY AND THEN SCROLL DOWN: Democrat's Answer:
Well, that's not enough information to answer the question!
What is a Kimber 1911 cal. 45 ACP?
Does the man look poor or oppressed?
Is he really a terrorist? Am I guilty of profiling?
Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack?
Could we run away?
What does my wife think?
What about the kids?
Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand?
What does the law say about this situation?
Does the pistol have appropriate safety built into it?
Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society and to my children?
Is it possible he'd be happy with just killing me?
Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me?
If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me?
Should I call 9-1-1?
Why is this street so deserted?
Can we make this a happier, healthier street that would discourage such behavior.
I need to debate this with some friends for a few days and try to come to a consensus. This is all so confusing!
Republican's Answer: BANG!
contents into the cup. (If you look very closely at the cover story photo on page 1, to the right, the puppy is watching the milk being squeezed into the cup and is licking her lips.)
Well, that was “one hungry puppy.” She drank most of the milk, the cup being half as big as the puppy herself. Having accomplished the first feeding, we began to think about what would come next (out the other end), so I went down to the lobby to buy a newspaper in case the new pup had to “do anything.” We waited a bit for any sign of progress that way but no luck.
In the meantime, we played with the puppy who was playful but cautious and would run around exploring and sniffing. Then she would come over and lick your hand or try to lick us in the face, as puppies often do. Shuru would hold her and pet her. The puppy seemed to accept that new affection with little difficulty. We were getting REAL attached to this little one. Shuru’s friend, a policewoman
The Spy and The Puppy Cont. on Page 3
Southerner's Answer: BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG ! BANG! BANG! BANG! Click..... (Sounds of reloading) BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Click Son: 'Can I shoot the next one?!' Wife: 'You ain't taking that to the Taxidermist!
•••• I've just been thinking. You know all those erectile dysfunction tv ads? How they warn about four hour erections? Ever wonder how the medical staff relieves those
