Eat, Drink, Rat, Dog

Life goes on as always for me and Cat in our village on the rice plains of Surin province, for ‘my Thai girl and I’.

Cat is now studying computer graphics full time at a college in Sangkha so my days are quiet and focus largely on my computer and finding something to eat. She has to work ridiculously long days and is very tired so we’re looking forward to the term break next week.

It’s been raining cats and dogs and there’s nothing I enjoy more than standing upstairs on the verandah, like a captain on the bridge of his ship peering out into the storm.

It’s been hard to cut the grass as the ground is sodden but I’ve installed sixteen meters of plastic piping and this now carries the water from the roof to discharge into the fish pond which still has not filled up despite the rains. The three big water vats around the house where we collect rain water for drinking over the dry season are full but, despite flooding in Korat not so far away, the rains here have not been so good this year.

For some reason the ducks refuse to stay on the pond but hang around the house for the scraps they get and leave their visiting cards everywhere. As it’s raining so hard, they come and shelter at night under the downstairs verandah and in the morning it’s amazing the mess they’ve made.

Yesterday I came downstairs to find a clutch of ducks and geese on the verandah, shit everywhere, a dead rat sprawled akimbo and the new puppy curled up in the pushchair like a baby.

‘Bee’, the cat had brought in the rat but being a well-fed farang cat had left it uneaten for Cat’s Papa who drops by from time to time to see if she’s brought him anything overnight. ‘Noo yahng arroy maak!’

And as for the new dog… we often see the motorbikes coming down the soi collecting dogs in the ugly cage on wheels they draw behind them. It’s always sad to see the dogs like this but I suppose it deals with the uncontrolled breeding of mangy dogs that otherwise goes unchecked.

The best way of disposing of unwanted puppies is to take them to the temple and the monks then try to find them homes. Cat’s been wanting another dog and I’ve persistently been saying no so, coming back from seeing Peter the other day we stopped off at the temple in Sangkha to get a puppy for Cat’s sister, Yut. I could hardly object though I thought I smelled a rat.

The dog of course quickly abandoned Yut’s house and found its way back to us where the pickings are better and here it has stayed ever since. So I’ve been out-manoeuvered again!

What can I do though but continue to go with the flow!