狐群狗黨 (Animal)

One of my friends lost his dog the other day when she rushed out of a pet shop on her first oestrus cycle. It’s a heartbreaking experience and he’s had a hard time getting over it.

Which reminds me of my own experience, when our dog ran away from home on her oestrus cycle. We had kept the dog ever since she was born. You didn’t have to leash her when walking her. She would always follow you back home when called.

But things were quite different when she was on her oestrus cycle. She just ignored us and ran away, staying outside with a gang of dogs. You saw her there but she wouldn’t come back no matter how hard you called.

Such a scene of our dog staying out with a gang of her species makes me realize why we use狐群狗黨(hu2 qun2 gou3 dang3) to describe a gang of villains getting together doing wrong. 狐, fox; 狗, dog; 群and黨both refer to a group or a party. The phrase literally means a group of foxes or dogs.

For example, one of your old friends is keeping bad company and you’d like to advise him to get away from them. You may say to him, “You’d better keep away from those 狐群狗黨 before you get into real trouble.”

Perhaps it’s dogs’ instinct to be together with their own species during a certain period. I just hope very soon my friend’s dog will leave her狗黨 and be back.

狐群狗黨=狐群狗党