I had the company of a new MG intern at the phone response center today. We had only one call in 3 hours so we spent the time chatting and doing research. The talking included dogs for some reason and the newby was reminded of a story he came across recently. It seems that dogs are very popular in Japan, with poodles in particular being in great demand. A price of $3200 is common. A dealer in Australia offered Poodles for $1600 and sold almost 2000 of them before the scam was uncovered. A proud new owner took her poodle to the Vet because it was not eating and to have it's nails trimmed. The Vet informed her that the "dog" had hooves and needed to be fed grasses and clover rather than dog food. :-) Sandy