The Menchi Dog

Anyone who's seen Excel Saga knows what Menchi looks like. Menchi is a dog an emergency food supply that looks nothing like one. People who see Menchi for the first time without being introduced to her species usually assume she's a cat. Normally, I'd assume that Koshi Rikdo just doesn't know how to draw dogs. But Axis Powers Hetalia has Japan have a dog that looks oddly like Menchi, and so I can't help but wonder now: is there some rare Japanese cat-lookalike breed of dog that I just don't know about? I'm just curious because I'm a dog geek, and so I love learning about different dog breeds.

edited 7th Jan '11 7:40:45 PM by Clevomon

From what I gather, it's supposed to be a Pomeranian.

Menchi is probably a Japanese Spitz, which is related to a Pomeranian but they tend to be a little bigger (still a small breed) and they're mostly white, like Menchi. However, she could also be a bigger white Pom, too. Some Pomeranians, especially white ones, can get noticeably bigger than the breed standard and can be up to 15 lbs. This is because they were bred down in size from bigger German Spitz dogs, so there are sometimes Poms that are purebred but their size is a throwback to what the breed used to be like. Or she could be a mix of the two.

In the manga, on one of Menchi's myriad escapes, she passes by a TV display in a window. There's a newscast showing her breed and announcing how rare and valuable she is, and she promptly gets chased down the street by a horde of greedy people.

So whatever she is, she's worth chasing a block to make a buck.