Underdog

"There's no need to fear, Underdog is here"

Watched Disney's "Underdog" movie with my humans last week. It's about a beagle called Shoe Shine who failed miserably in his job as a bomb-detector dog. Instead of detecting bombs, he detects a huge piece of ham instead (he's my kind of dog - between bomb and ham, I pick food anytime)! After his major boo-boo, he gets laughed off the bomb detection squad by the Alsatians. Ejected, rejected and dejected, he stumbles off and gets caught by the bumbling side-kick of a mad scientist. After an accident at the lab, Shoe Shine discovers he can talk (surprise, surprise) and has extraordinary powers (you know, the kind that superheroes have - fly like a bird, run like the wind, etc, etc). However, despite his new-found super abilities, all this lonely beagle wants is to have a human to love and a home.

The rest of the plot is pretty typical - superhero finds a human boy who loves him and gives him a name and a home, falls in love (with Polly Purebred, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel)and rescues the city from the clutches of the mad scientist. Anyway, while the movie was so, so, it did trigger some thoughts on the term "underdog".

Wikipedia defines underdog as a participant in a fight, conflict, or game who is not expected to win.

I don't know about you but personally, I like to root for the underdog. My human mum feels the same. Back in the days when my human dad was a basketball fan (he has since turned his attention to mountain biking), my mum would always cheer for whichever team that was playing against the Bulls. This was during the era of Michael "Air" Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were on a winning streak. Of course, the underdogs don't always win (duh!)- The Bulls won six of the eight championships from 1991-98.

Notwithstanding the odds, there is something about the David and Goliath factor that makes me want to cheer the Davids of this world (which is probably why American Idol finalist, 17-year old David Archuleta is so popular). Back to the David of old, the little shepherd boy went against a 9-feet giant Philistine warrior. Whilst Goliath, a seasoned warrior was armed to the hilt with state-of-the-art (for those days anyway) bronze coat, helmet, armour, javelin and spear, David, a young boy was armed only with 5 stones and a sling (this was also because he had never used an armour before and couldn't walk in the heavy outfit).

Now, if I were a betting dog, I would say that the odds were definitely against David. During the confrontation, Goliath calls David a stick and threatens to feed him to the birds and beasts. David's response to the insults and threats was "... all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's and He will give you into our hands" And so, using a sling and a stone, David kills Goliath with a direct hit on his forehead. What a twist to the story, the underdog had a top dog (definition: person in charge, dominant position, highest authority) backing him. Now, that changes the odds entirely. How about that?