The abandoned Shiba Inu dog of China, which became an online celebrity, finally has a home. It was sold for Rs18,52,571 through an online auction on taobao.com. Deng Deng was left at a pet training centre seven years ago and no one ever came to take him back. Noticing the plight of the dog through its online popularity, a local court in Beijing ordered that Deng Deng should be put up for auction. The South China Morning Post said: “The online auction started on Wednesday morning with an opening price of 500 yuan and was scheduled to end 24 hours later. But the huge level of interest generated, with over 100,000 people watching the live-streaming auction, and with 480 people bidding, prompted the auctioneers to extend the bidding to Thursday afternoon."
Deng Deng had become a celebrity in China after his sad background story was narrated by his foster care centre via his Weibo account. Weibo is a Chinese microblogging site. Deng Deng is 40cm (1.3 feet) high, 50cm (1.6 feet) long and weighs 14kg (31lbs), has a healthy appetite and is desexed, said the SCMP report. The Shiba Inu’s account said that how he was lonely after his parent abandoned him there in 2014. The parent paid the fees for one year at the foster care, but he did not turn up to collect him. In 2017, a court ordered the parent to pay the outstanding fees to the foster care and also collect Deng Deng, but he failed to do so. In 2018, he was put up for auction which attracted widespread media attention. At this time, the parent resurfaced, paid the outstanding fees and promised to take Deng Deng home. But this time too, he failed to turn up.
The Shiba Inu’s new parent does not have to pay the outstanding fees to the foster care. The care centre has said that they would keep an eye on Deng Deng even when he is in his new home. This happy ending has left Deng Deng’s online fans teary-eyed and relieved. The Shiba Inu is a small hunting dog from Japan. In recent times, the breed’s popularity has soared because of the cryptocurrency ‘dogecoin’, the logo of which has a Shiba Inu. Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, has a pet Shiba Inu called Floki, who has a dedicated fan following.
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