Introducing Rocky the Bus Cleaner

Bangkok's municipal buses ferry hundreds of passengers every day, and by the time they pull up at the bus depot at the end of the day after lurching back and forth through the crowded city streets, these vehicles are usually awash in crumbs and sticky drink spills. Although there are city employees whose job it is to clean these buses, they're unable to reach all the nooks and crannies in a bus, which over time leads to a quick buildup of gnarly grime.

Rocky, an enterprising two year old black mutt who lives around the Victory Monument area (along with dozens of other street dogs), used to always sneak into the open doors of buses when they pulled up at the local depot, in order to lick the sugary spills and crumbs from off the bus floor. He’d wait until the drivers opened the doors to air the buses out, and then bolt with cheetah-like speed into the empty vehicles for a feast. He's pictured here with a bone from the spoils of one of his daring daylight raids.

One day about six months ago, an entourage of city officials was touring the area, followed Rocky as he snuck onto a bus, and watched him scour the floors with his toungue until the bus was spotless. Instead of scolding Rocky (as many bus drivers had done when they'd caught him in the act), the officials immediately offered Rocky a job as a city bus cleaner. Since then, Rocky has won the municipality's Employee of the Month three times, and his comprehensive cleaning style has become the model for other, human bus cleaners to emulate.