We don't do dried food, mister

Chef Maiyuu knows the way to his boyfriend’s heart is through his...dog.

We have adopted a dog which has taken up residence outside our condo building.

Jao Khao, like many stray Thai dogs, is shy, subservient, and takes fright at the slightest noise. She also knows her food.

Last week, I suggested Maiyuu might like to buy some dog pellets for Jao Khao on his next visit to the supermarket.

Normally I buy Jao Khao and another stray dog around here fried sausages, which I obtain from a woman in the slum.

On the days when she is closed, however, Jao Khao has to go without. He must rely on other residents in the condo to feed him snacks, or go hungry.

Maiyuu, however, knows what Thai dogs like.

‘He’s a stray...they only eat human food,’ he said.

Here is a dish which Maiyuu prepared for Jao Khao the other day...a mixture of boiled rice, Esan sausage, and fish.

When I took it outside, Jao Khao was her usual bashful self. She will not eat if she thinks I am looking, as it is impolite.

But when I turned my head to give him some privacy, she tucked in to the meal, and had polished it off in half a minute.

By day, Jao Khao (named after the colour of her coat – in Thai, khao is white) she shepherds people around the inside of the condo precinct.

She also circles cars when they enter, to give them a quick once-over before they proceed to the security guard’s kiosk.

Our condo, which faces a well-to-do part of town on one side, and a slum on the other, is home to many stray dogs.

They have divided up the territory between themselves and for the most part get along well.

Jao Khao arrived a few months ago. She wears a collar, and is comfortable around people, which makes me suspect that she once had an owner.

Jao Khao is a huge hit with the residents, perhaps because of her winsome crooked smile (she has protruding teeth).

She also has an appealing furrowed brow, and lopsided ears.

‘She is a real softy,’ a middle-aged farang told me the other day, when he saw the two of us at play.

‘She never stops smiling.’

A foreigner in his 20s, the son of a European ambassador, has also taken a shine to the dog.

‘She is really in touch with her feelings,’ he remarked.

She sleeps out of sight in the shrubs along the side of the building. When it is cold or wet, she shivers, but I dare not arrange a permanent sleeping space for her, for fear of upsetting the people who run this place.

We have more than enough stray dogs hanging around as it is.

Jao Khao likes to be useful.

She escorts her favourite patrons to the carpark building at the far end, or wherever else they happen to be heading...as long as it does not intrude in the territory marked out by other dogs.

One day, she strayed too far into a zone occupied by three or four dogs from the same family which used to live in a specially built doghouse on a vacant lot.

The land, which runs along one side of the condo complex, was once owned by a bank.

It has now changed hands. The developer owner, who wants to turn it into housing, has hired a family from Esan to start clearing it.

Recently they dismantled the dog house, built by a man who lives in this condo complex.

It had its own fence, palm trees, even an electricity supply, and in its heyday was home to more than half a dozen stray dogs which he collected from the vacant lot.

Now that the dog house is no more, some of the dogs who once lived there have taken to sitting outside the owner’s condo building, growling at passers-by.

The day when Jao Khao strayed into their turf, she was escorting me to the carpark.

Three of the dog-house mutts chased her, cornered her down a narrow pathway, and looked set to attack.

Jao Khao, who is a submissive type, quickly gave up the fight. She rolled on to her back, in the hope they would show some mercy.

I didn’t wait to see what happened next. I shouted at the dogs, and kicked the nastiest of the mutts so hard it almost went into orbit.

They haven’t tangled with Jao Khao again – but nor is she silly enough, any more, to leave her own patch.

Jao Khao is safe with us, and with us, our dog shall stay.