Forget Sheep Dogs…..

Japan has lamb-poodles. Or actually, they don't but the world media keeps reporting that they do. Stories have been circulating about a racket where shady operators in Japan have been importing lambs from Australia and selling them as poodles. No, really. And it all started when a Japanese actress recounted having heard about something like that. Somehow, that got changed around and she was reported to have been the victim of the switcheroo.

The actress on Tuesday denied foreign media reports that she had been the victim of a scam by tricksters importing lambs from Australia and Britain to sell as poodles to thousands of unsuspecting rich Japanese women.

News of the reported hoax reached as far as Britain, the United States and Australia before police and Kawakami quashed it as untrue.

The British tabloid The Sun reported that the scam came to light after Kawakami complained on a television talk show that her new poodle refused to bark or eat dog food and that she was devastated when told it was a lamb.

"Ms. Kawakami is very surprised by how much this has spread overseas. She was just recounting on television how she had heard of such a story while she was at a nail salon," a spokeswoman for her talent agency said.

"Ms. Kawakami does not even own a poodle!" she added.

Which is quite true. Her new bulldog, however, only says "baaaa".