Friday the 13th Memes

The Dead Dog

For my American readers as always greetings from the future! The death merchants really seem to be piling on with one thing after another lately, don’t they?

Three days ago a black cat crossed my path. This is a Storytime with Amy special.

Me and my husband are trying to pack things up here. Part of that involves securing things which are not either as easy or as cheap to procure in the USA. I’d been eying Genjira’s shop for a few days. But I was worried about the dogs.

Genjira’s shop is located in Pakhrom Cheep about two miles from our location. I’ve been going in there since I lived in the neighborhood around the time my younger daughter was born. She’s the Thai equivalent of an old school general store in the USA in days of old, in that she sells everything. I’d explained to my husband Ka that I wanted to pick up a few broad spectrum antibiotics like penicillin and amoxycillan, plus she sold art supplies, Thai herbal medicines and had the cheapest 1 kilogram bags of dog food around at 42 baht. Since we’d be walking, and her shop was across the ever dangerous highway 402/Thepkrassatri, I didn’t want the dogs following us.

I’d tried a few different things when we’d gone on walks where the dogs can’t or shouldn’t follow us, with varying levels of success. I’d tried tying them up, but that didn’t work. Daisy chewed through the rope and Shadow almost strangled herself. I’d tried locking them in the neighbor’s abandoned house but they were able to jump out of the blown out window and caught up to our position in no time. I’d had the best luck with feeding them right before we left, especially if they were hungry. There was a certain spot on the dirt road where if we got to it with no dogs we were home free.

I was out of dog food, but we fed them some leftovers before we set out on our journey to Genjira’s shop. The black puppy Shady didn’t take the bait and followed us out. Within a few minutes Cooper, Daisy and Shadow were all following us.

“We have four dogs following us.” I told my husband. Ka tried throwing rocks at them to get them to go back home. I’d told him before that this was sometimes more dangerous as the dogs would then still follow, but at a distance where they would not follow commands. “Maybe they’ll fall back at the main road.” I told him as we continued walking. Cooper always went back home when we got to the highway and Shady usually did before it. Instead all four dogs continued following us.

I sat down when we got to our crossing point. It was very hot that afternoon. “I don’t want to go across with all of the dogs following us.” There are no proper crosswalks anywhere near this area and the three lane in each direction highway is dangerous FOR PEOPLE to cross on foot. There’s huge speed differentials among the cars, trucks and motorbikes and very few if any breaks in traffic. Daisy had learned to use the pedestrian bridge with me but we were not close to it.

“We go Genjira’s shop.” Ka insisted. We’d already walked one mile in that direction. I looked back after a few minutes. Cooper had already headed back home and I didn’t see Daisy anywhere. I saw Shadow laying down under some trees nearby. Ka grabbed my hand.

When we got to the grass center divider area I noticed Shady the puppy was trying to cross to follow us. She’d never tried to cross before. “Stay there!” I screamed as I threw some rocks at her. By the time we got to the other side of the highway and began walking towards Genjira’s shop I looked back and breathed a huge sigh of relief. None of the dogs had followed us. We cut onto the side road Genjira’s shop was on perhaps 700 meters or 1/2 mile up.

A black cat crossed directly in front of my path on the side road. My first thought was how odd this was.

I very rarely see all black cats in Thailand. For whatever reason I see a lot of calicos and totoise shells and orange tabbies and sometimes all white persians or black and white cats like Sprout. I could not recall one time in my 10 years here where a black cat had crossed my path even though in my last several months here I have had encounters with three black snakes, King cobras specifically, two of which did cross onto my path. Ka had insisted that a snake crossing your path was considered very lucky.

I pondered this as I passed the cat on the side of the road, who regarded me with wary copper eyes. She was a beautiful cat, perhaps even a purebred something or other as we were in a nice farang development type of area with carefully manicured gates on each side of the road. I dismissed it. Thailand probably didn’t even have a superstition about black cats crossing your path.

A dog was barking loudly from behind a gate as we came out of Genjira’s shop with our needed supplies. I had a sinking feeling in my heart as I saw Shadow warily approach us. When we got to the main road we saw a woman parked on a motorbike at the side. The truck for Soi Dog was pulling up. There was an all black dog dead in the grass at the center partition.

“Shady.” I said as I looked at the puppy sadly. Shadow sniffed at her body. I could tell the poor dog had died almost instantly. There was no blood or gore from whatever had struck her. She almost seemed to be grinning.

A man from Soi Dog asked my husband in Thai language if Shady was our dog. Her almost spitting image in her sister Shadow was right by my side. “I don’t even know how to answer that question.” I said, which was a true story. Shady had been adopted out by somebody in our neighborhood, then she found her way back to our bungalow a few weeks later. We’d been in talks with the woman about taking Shady back after we left the area. Despite that I knew that Shady always wanted to be my dog. DOB 03/13/2023 DOD 10/10/2023.

She was my dog now.

I guess the biggest question I’ve had, with all of this horror unfolding over Israel and Palestine, is this: why do some deaths matter so much more than others? Is the reported beheading of 40 babies at the hands of terrorists worth shutting off the incubators to the same number of babies in Palestine? Is it preferable to watch your child be shot in the head or to die of thirst?

Nobody Can Support This Once They See It. "Pure Panic Everywhere You Look," "Gaza Is Under A Complete Seige. No Water, No Food, No Electricity, and No Escape."

Yeah I’m sure the Palestinians can evacuate if they weren’t such terrorists and subhuman and stuff. Oh wait, here’s a diagram of their wonderful 15 minute city.

Let’s go a little deeper here. Do you want your 93 year old grandmother to be celebrated as another Covid death, or do you want your 18 year old son to die suddenly on the football field? I’m sure he died peacefully and can be quickly forgotten. If he was an antivaxxer, he probably deserved to die. Do you want to be on the side that remembers every life lost and mourns daily about how they were tragically cut short, or do you want to be on the side where you and your family are dispensable collateral damage? You need to be on the winning team of course! Some lives matter and some do not!

Don’t you want to be human? Pick a side please!

Life insurance policies have picked a side. They don’t cover vaccine deaths, acts of terrorism or war, or acts of God, which would probably include DEW weapons raining fire from the skies. Sorry but some deaths are worth more than others.

Please look at the flag on this meme and assume my patriotism due to it!

But if you are wondering where all of your precious money went to, here it is…

Please pick a side. I know what I’m aligned against:

Buy me a ko-fi