I Found Biscuit by the Skytrain Lift Near Phrom Phong

It was a Thursday evening in March, 2020, the week everything in the world started to feel strange. I was coming home from the office in Sukhumvit and, near the lift at the Phrom Phong Skytrain station, I saw a tan dog with a white chest sitting perfectly still. Dozens of people walked past him. He was looking directly at me with the face of someone who has lent you money and is waiting patiently for it.

I stopped. I do not know why. He stood, walked beside me for two blocks, and when I turned at my soi he turned too. I told myself I would feed him a sandwich and ask the security guard at my condo what to do. The guard, who has since become Biscuit's second-best friend, looked at me, looked at the dog, and said nothing at all. Biscuit went up in the lift, walked into my bedroom, and lay down on my side of the bed. He has not left it since.

The next week I took him to the vet on Sukhumvit. He was a few months old, thin, a little dusty, and healthy. Our vet gave him his vaccinations, tick and heartworm prevention, and later neutered him. She said the best thing for a former street dog was routine, patience and not too much too soon, and she was right. The first two weeks he flinched at every sound. By the third he was snoring.

Condo life suits him surprisingly well. He has learned the lift, the lobby, the gardener, the lady at the front desk, and exactly which tree on the soi is the best. He hates the vacuum cleaner with a passion, so I vacuum when he is at the groomer, which makes him feel quite safe. He will walk for two hours if there is a 7-Eleven in the middle for a ham sandwich. I buy the sandwich, I give him two small bites and eat the rest. He is not allowed more, but he has not stopped trying.

Now there is also a British shorthair in the house who judges him, but that is another story. Biscuit has never been bothered. He is a dog who knows where he came from, and knows where he is going to sleep tonight.

If you see a tan dog sitting alone near a lift or a bus stop in Bangkok, do stop for a minute. You never know.