Ducks and Dogs in Qingdao

Ducks:
Several vendors at the Pedestrian Mall sell baby ducks. They have 20-30 of them in cardboard boxes. We couldn't figure out who would buy them since everyone lives in apartments--- then we saw some of our neighbors outside letting their two baby ducks swim in a puddle of water on the driveway. We are still not quite sure what the people do with the ducks in their apartments, but our guess is that the ducks will become dinner some night!




Dogs:
There are lots of dogs in Qingdao, and there are vendors selling puppies almost every day. Most are clean and very pretty, and most are small because of apartment living. The overwhelming majority of the dogs are Pomeranians. (Does that mean Lilly is part Chinese??) There are quite a few poodles, but we have only seen a couple of Bichons. We have seen only one really huge dog---some kind of big white one, whose owner walks him on the Pedestrian Mall quite often. I can't imagine that one in an apartment! Evidently there are no leash laws, and it is really scary to see off-leash dogs crossing the high-traffic streets that had no traffic lights! People even take their dogs into restaurants or stores. The people do pretty well picking up after the dogs. I still don't know how the dogs have learned the Chinese commands!