Shaggy’s Happy Tale

AND HERE SHAGGY’s HAPPY TALE!!! Thanks so much Kirsty!!!

Shaggy has fit right in with us since he arrived here in Bangkok 4 weeks ago. He absolutely loves being a pampered pooch. He is a bright boy and learns pretty quickly and has now mastered a couple of commands. We have been so lucky that he’s been so well-behaved, we have had no big disasters with him. However, it has taken a few weeks for him to learn how to behave around my 3 cats, as he does like to chase them. We have had an incident with a petrified cat up a tree and climbing ladders to bring him down. Things have improved over time and my youngest cat (who is a tiny brave Thai cat) has taken the role of Boss and with a bit of hissing and a few slaps, Shaggy is now on his best behavior around her. It’s been really funny to watch the dynamics between them. Despite having lots of dog toys, his favorites are the cat toys and my 3 cats watch in horror as he slobbers all over them.

Shaggy’s confidence is building. He was a bit of a crybaby when he was at ENP and he still has a little whimper if he is unsure of anything. Shaggy has made friends with the 3 dogs that rule the street that we live on, which is amazing as for the first few weeks, they visited our garden gate to growl at him. They now come for walkies with us in the neighborhood and he gets a bit of doggy company. He gets a few compliments from the locals when we are out and our neighbor calls him ‘Suay Daeng’ which means ‘Beautiful Red’. We visit a big park twice a week and we have a really long walk and a splash around in the lake and he loves it. Shaggy’s favorite place in the house is the bed, he quite happily takes himself upstairs when he fancies a little snooze and cuddles up with his favorite cat toy. I guess being allowed on the bed is a real novelty for him as the rooms/beds were out of bounds at the volunteer house at ENP (that didn’t stop him trying to break in to get a few seconds on a bed before being evicted though!) He can now lounge around on the bed to his hearts content and that’s exactly what he is doing! It’s not so easy having a dog in Bangkok, lots of soi dogs mean territorial issues and many parks don’t allow dogs, but I have found some parks, doggy cafes and groups we can join, including an obedience and agility class. One step at a time for this amazing boy, there’s no rush as we have the rest of our lives together, we are so happy to have him here with us. Thanks to the amazing staff and volunteers at ENP for all that you do, thanks for rescuing Shaggy, along with his siblings and Mum and for taking such good care of them all.
-Kirsty