Bangkok Street Dogs

A place to learn about the lives of street dogs in Bangkok, Thailand, with emphasis on the individual characters of the Bangkok street dog community and their stories of hardship and humor.

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Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Introducing Donny Daredevil



For most street dogs, surviving in Bangkok is a day-to-day struggle in which dangers -- in the form of speeding cars and motorcycles, predatory fellow street dogs, disease, and poisoning by heartless humans, to name a few -- lurk around every corner. You might assume, then, that the chaotic life of a city stray would be anything but boring. And that's true for most dogs -- except for a crazy 4 year old white-haired mutt known on the street as Donny Daredevil.

The thrill-seeking Donny, who lives near Bangkok's Grand Palace, loves to play street games in which he risks life and limb -- and the gnashing teeth of Bangkok's mind-boggling array of vehicles are all too happy to oblige. He's seen here playing his favorite game -- called "Pancake" -- which consists of Donny positioning his tail in the roadway and then moving it out of the way just as a car is about to run over it, while of course managing to avoid getting run over himself.

Donny always gets this maniacal, glassy-eyed grin on his face after he has played this game for a few hours, after which his friends will team up to drag him to the safety of the sidewalk. He actually used to play Pancake using his front legs, but on one unfortunate occasion he was too slow to remove his left front paw, and it was severed by a passing cement truck. Luckily, a fellow street dog knew someone who knew someone in the emergency room at Bangkok General Hospital, and this doctor was able to re-attach Donny's left front paw -- although it's not completely straight, as you can tell from the photo.

18 Comments:

Blogger Beo said...

If he has trouble walking/running you could throw a little roller blade on him.:)

5:46 PM  
Blogger kimmyk said...

Aww...all these dogs look sickly and not taken care of...please tell me someone takes care of these poor animals. I love the dogs perspective of the blog, just saddens me to see 'em look so thin and homeless.

Tell me there's a good ending in all this....

8:31 PM  
Blogger Internet Street Philosopher said...

Danny's crazy!!! But good thing you're looking out for him.

11:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great blog

11:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lovely blog. Very creative.

3:10 AM  
Blogger Neva F. Darbe said...

I have added this blog to my offsite blog list at http://www.Writing.Com/authors/nfdarbe/blog

4:40 AM  
Blogger N/A said...

Wow that's an impressive story. I've never met a dog that played with death the way this one does. Much props.

Love,
The Benjamin D. Singer Experience for the Ladies

Best blog in the blogosphere

7:46 AM  
Blogger -G.D. said...

Great idea for a blog.

7:54 AM  
Blogger Carl Weaver said...

I have felt much love for dogs in Thailand for quite some time. No, they are not taken care of and live on scraps and other smaller animals. A number of times I thought I was going to get my ass bit off by a Thai dog, but fortunately that never happened. One time, simply by virtue of the dog being on a chain that was about an inch shorter than the distance it would have taken to bite me.

Thanks for looking out for the precious dogs!

9:11 AM  
Blogger neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Dear Casanova, your brother and sister street dawgs have it pretty bad down in some o' them 3rd world countries.

People call 'em kangalang and couriats. Many are killed and left to die on the roads.

Fortunately, the GSPCA is now super active and doing some very, very good work.

Stay well, hope you find some juicy bones to gnaw on.

9:18 AM  
Blogger Minkey girl said...

Oh poor precious thing! Thanks to loving people..

10:17 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Donny looks well fed and content ... I think this dog knows what he's doing

10:25 AM  
Blogger Malach the Merciless said...

Well, you could always eat him.

12:21 PM  
Blogger Blagger said...

Yeah, dogs look pretty cool. But speaking from a cat's perspective, looks can be deceiving. One time I dated this dog of a cat - wow, what a bitch (parden my French).

No, but seriously. I do get along with many local street-dogs. Like Jimmy the pickle-faced pitbull, and rover (a fine dog). Basically, kudos to dogs everywhere, and stay cool.
- One Cool Cat (Yoni)

2:26 PM  
Blogger TwistedNoggin said...

My father lives in the middle of nowhere in Southern Indiana, USA. There is a dog that sleeps in the middle of the street every day and everyone just goes around.
never gets hit.
I find that funny.

poor puppies. There's so many out there.
And somewhere, people are breeding dogs as fast as they can to sell to pet-shops.

6:19 PM  
Blogger Stella said...

IT'is a great idea this blog. Congratulations! It's very creative and kind. Thanks for loving dogs,They are great!
I am from Brasil and just by chance ... I got here!One of the lady's dog names Stella which is my real name.Very funny this coincidence..!
Stella

6:20 PM  
Blogger Rufus McCain said...

Sniff sniff sniff. sniff. sniff sniff.

10:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So Hammered, in analogy to humans you're saying that if your kids got annoying and made you spend too much money, you're better off killing them instead of leaving them around to become potential school-shootout types?

Good thinking.

12:56 AM  

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