Thailand 2023 Unexpected Gift #4 : Having an Animal Friend Again

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There is only one regret I carry with our global travel lifestyle of the past decade: we cannot maintain an animal family member. Simply no pets allowed. We have considered it, but it is not viable when we are out of the country travelling five months of the year.

I have had animal friends all of my life. Cats, rabbits, iguanas, turtles, fish, and dogs. Several dogs. Together, Stan and I had a wonderful black lab named Sam, who was part of our family long before our children arrived. We adopted him at four years of age, and he remained with us until he was sixteen. A short while later, we introduced two miniature schnauzers - Magic and Tuxedo - to our family, which now also included our two children. Our schnauzers each lived to be sixteen years of age. The last one, Tuxedo, died just one year before I completed my work in the teaching profession and transitioned to this bohemian lifestyle. I miss her still.

I love dogs, so it was a very special gift to have the company of Thang (pronounced Tawng) during our stay in Koh Phangan. He was the resort dog, a total free spirit who listened to pretty much no one, including his owner, but whom most everybody loved.

Our relationship took on a pattern this year when he would wait at the resort entrance for Stan and I to come back after our dinner outing, and then happily escort us back to our room, tail wagging. We of course encouraged this with scratches and cajoling words, which he ate up. He also ate up the chicken morsels Stan would stuff in his pocket after each meal. Is this cheating? Vying for affection? Most definitely. ☺️🦴

Anyway, after a short while, Thang regularly stopped by every morning to get his morning scratch, which was often accompanied by a treat. Repeat again every evening, and periodically throughout the day. He would also escort us down the beach for all our evening walks, and would join us not so discreetly under our dinner table when we were eating out at our favorite sand floor restaurant on the beach. We also sometimes joined him and the other beach dogs when they broke into their canine symphonies at various points of the day, getting in some good yodelling, howling, and solid laughs.

And then there were the yoga classes. Thang never missed a class, always freely sharing fresh sand and often a spray of fresh ocean water if he’d recently indulged in a swim. He would seat himself nearest the instructor, and eventually nearest me, as our time together continued, and either the bond got stronger or the treats better 🤷🏻‍♀️. I came to love that dog, whom I first met when he and I were both younger back in 2017, and leaving him was not an easy thing to do. Like, I am seriously choking up as I am writing this.

Of course he popped in for my house concert as well, said his doggie hello to everyone in the audience, stole the spotlight while collecting his fair share of scratches, hung around for maybe one song - acoustic soul not being his preferred genre, and I wasn’t taking yodelling requests - then continued on in his free spirit way to check out whatever else was happening that night.

But I’m sure he’s been through this love ‘em and leave ‘em scenario before. The day we were leaving, he walked in, took a look at all the luggage lying around, and for the first time ever entered the bedroom and lay down beside the bed, where he hung out for a much longer time than usual. He did not come to say goodbye later, for which I was most grateful, as I was already crying somewhat profusely and it would have made for an even more embarrassing departure.

Side note: his owner - the resort owner Thao - shared with me that his name means “tank” (as in army tank) cause he is one solid dog. When we were leaving, I told Thao that, based on observing Thang’s consistent handling of all the other dog’s on the beach, we added a prefix to his name: M.B. ( Mafia Boss) Thang.

Add this delightful canine presence to the list of reasons we look forward to returning to our Koh Phangan family next year. We will likely be packing a couple treats for Thang.

Thank you for your interest in our travels 🙏

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Photos

We All Love Thang, and He Loves Everyone
Warning: waking him when he’s in a deep sleep, or approaching him quickly with hand extended if you are not familiar to him, will provoke a very intimidating growl you won’t want to experience again. Its quite effective, so won’t need that warning repeated. 🐾