article · Issue No. 37, April 1946 · p. 20 p. 21

Happy Animals — Animals with Jobs and Animals with Millions

الحيوانات السعداء - حيوانات اصحاب وظائف وحيوانات اصحاب ملايين

They told me of a lady arriving from one of the lands of the Mahjar — her family is in Beirut, and her husband too, and her children — who stopped in one of the European ports for "two months" until she could find a steamer that would agree to carry her along with her two dogs!... This story reminded me of that rich lady "Balha," who bequeathed her fortune, estimated at a million pounds, to her dog, who was left all alone after her... And I do not know how that "moneyed" dog managed to dispose of all that money!..

My search led me on to those dogs that are employed in certain difficult police tasks, and to how they live pampered in palaces, surrounded by guards, servants, doctors, and teachers; and then it led me to these horses whose fame on the racecourse has become, among us, greater than the fame of geniuses! — the ones our popular poet al-Za'ni "envied" when he said: If only I were a horse — I'd eat pistachios, I'd eat hazelnuts, and so on...

And in this picture (2) is the canary "Buzzy," who performs his part to near perfection; his monthly income comes to two thousand liras, and now that he has secured the material side of his life, he is striving to consolidate his standing as an artist: in his leisure hours he may be observed practicing new compositions...

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