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March 25, 2008

Enlightened chihuahua

praythisone.jpg Attendance has picked up at a Zen Buddhist temple in southern Japan since Conan, a chihuahua belonging to the priest, has taken to joining him in prayer.

Mimicking his master, priest Joei Yoshikuni, the 1 1/2-year-old black-and-white Chihuahua joins in the daily prayers at Shuri Kannondo temple in Naha, sitting up on his hind legs and putting his front paws together before the altar, according to an Associated Press story you can read here.

"I think he saw me doing it all the time and got the idea to do it, too," Yoshikuni said.

It took Conan only a few days to learn the motions, and now he is the talk of the town.

"Word has spread, and we are getting a lot more tourists," Yoshikuni said Monday.

Yoshikuni said Conan generally goes through his prayer routine at the before his morning and evening meals.

(AP Photo by Itsuo Inouye)

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About Jill Rosen
Jill Rosen is a reporter at The Baltimore Sun. During her nearly 20 years in journalism, she has covered news and features — including a surprising number of stories that involved animals. There were the dog Christmas carolers in State College, Pa. There were the hounds who toured with a production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The story of a preschool teacher at Baltimore’s Father Kolbe School who had to replace her class guinea pig, who died over the winter holiday. A harrowing tale of what it was like to make homemade pet food ...

Though her clean freak of a mother refused to allow her to get a dog, she has had a number of pets through the years, including goldfish named Bob and Fingle, a betta fish named Ichabod, a wild rat terrier named Wendel, who she shared with a roommate, and, currently, sweet, sweet kitties named Leo Sesame and Milo Pumpkin and a little rescued pup named Teddy Bean. She, Leo, Pumpkin and Teddy Bean live in Baltimore.
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