Riding the bicycle or
sitting in the park I occasionally do see a dog that needs just a little bit
extra attention.
Before I continue I
have to stress that underfed dogs are very rare. As blogged before, most street
dogs in Thailand are well fed dogs that are taken care of by the locals.
I don’t feed these
street dogs. The dogs that I feed though, are the few ones who had an accident
, are temperately sick, are simply underfed, and need extra food for a while to get back on their pawns again,
to help them in a difficult time.
It is simple. I just
carry a bottle shaped plastic container on the bicycle filled with supermarket
dog food. I live between the rice fields but usually go two or three times a
week to the nearby city. And that’s when I do my round and visit the dogs and
feed them.
Last year.
Dog#1. There he was,
standing on the road. A bald scruffy dog, dizzy looking, very skinny and a very
big dent on his head. His skull was dented. He obviously had a serious accident
a while ago and also obviously he was struggling.
Three times a week I
gave him food. He slowly recovered. By now his hair has grown back, he is part
of the local street vendors market, and he simply turned into a super nice and
happy playful dog and always very happy to see me.
Dog#2. This dog was a
park dog, whenever I did go to the park to play with my 5 year old son, he was
there. A healthy and big dog and although I didn’t feed him he always was
playful with me and always greeted me when he saw me.
Suddenly however he
became sick with a skin disease and became very skinny, and rather sad looking.
Time to enter the Adopt A Dog program!!
Dog#1 and dog#2 lived
on the same stretch of road so I could feed them simultaneously. In accordance
with his good nature dog#2 allowed dog#1 to eat
together without fighting.
As blogged before, the
end of last year both dogs mysteriously disappeared for almost a month at the
same time.
After a month of
absence dog#1 was back, and well fed. A week later I also did meet again with
dog#2 not in his usual spot but a few streets away, on a main road.
He was mildly happy to
see me again, and mildly interested in
the dog food. That was strange, what happened? I did get the answer a few days
later when I saw him again. He suddenly took off and wagging his tail he greeted
somebody else in the street. Dog#2 had been adopted by somebody else. That is a
happy ending.
Dog#3. A few times in
the big city I saw a big Danish dog sized dog dragging his underfed and
old body through the streets. I gave this dog food on several occasions but
after that he was out of sight until last week when I saw him again. When I
stopped the bicycle and called him though, instead of coming as he usually did,
he strolled into a nearby local shop!!
I mean, he walked right into the shop all the way to the back while the shop
owners were there and didn’t bother to look at him. He also wasn’t the scruffy
underfed dog anymore but well fed and simply looking happy.
Dog#3 had been adopted
by local people into their home and was now taken care for. Happy ending.
I end this article
with my request not to help western style dog pounds in Thailand. Good
intentions from western animal lovers but not so good for the street dogs. In
Thailand street dogs are accepted and taken care for by the local people. Let
them live free.
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