Dog I Think Has Rabies

The street our house is on is called Samlan Road. Samlan is basically comprised of eight "soi" or alleyways, and we're on number 7. I was on a mission tonight, hunting for a phone and some food. There are plenty of food stalls that have extremely cheap Thai goodies--I can get a bag of steamed rice for 5 baht, which is roughly 15 cents. Harder to find was a phone that would work to make international calls. But determined I was.

Now, let me say this--Thailand is the dumping ground for the world's unwanted dogs. They are everywhere. You can't walk five feet without seeing at least one, and for the most part they're well tolerated and taken care of. The monks feed the ones that hang around the temples, even.

Also rampant in Thailand is rabies. I don't think 5% of these dogs are vaccinated. So when I passed the last of the food stalls and the giant mean-looking dog lunged out at me, barking ferociously, I was legitimately worried. I jumped sideways (not a good idea, because that put me farther in the road, which might be worse than the rabies danger) and tried to just keep walking. The damn thing followed me. Of all the people walking on the street, and there were a lot, it was like he was zeroing in on me. I think this thing was racist. I mean, come on, I wasn't nearly the closest person to his family, yet he comes after only me on this crowded street. He was looking for some white meat and I was the best thing on the menu. I must have walked fifty yards with DITHR right behind me, sure the next thing I felt would be his jaws clamping down on my calves, trying to calculate how many punches I would be able to get in before he took me out and desperately wishing I had gotten the rabies vaccines instead of the Japanese Encephalitis. Who the freak gets Japanese Encephalitis? Rabies seemed the obvious choice at this juncture.

A group of scooters were flying down the road toward me and I took my chance at the last moment, jumping across the street at the last second, halfway hoping that DITHR would be caught in the crossfire of the psychotic scooter drivers. DITHR survived. I feel certain we will meet again.