This might seem a bit goofy and probably dirty, but one of the first things I noticed when I moved to Thailand was that dogs all had huge, swinging balls. I’m not trying to be gross, I’m serious. Think about it: almost every dog you see back home is neutered. But not in Bangkok – they’re swingin’ around in all their glory. This, of course, leads to a larger stray dog population, more competition and – much like us humans – the need to develop some serious street smarts and survival skills if they want to prosper in a city this weird and harsh. Which is why I took a photograph of this dog.

If you hadn’t read about it, Thailand went through some serious waves of heat (aka a ‘heatwave’) a few weeks ago, with temperatures in the daytime getting up to near 40ºC with some serious humidity and a lack of wind that made it feel more like 50ºC. At any rate, air-con use hit record highs, the malls were packed, and if you did have go outside, you likely did it via a strategically-chosen network of stores, malls, shops and air-conned restaurants. Just like this dog did.

There a joke about hot dogs to be made in here somewhere but I can't quite get it.

There a joke about hot dogs to be made in here somewhere but I can’t quite get it.

I went into my neighborhood 7-11 and almost tripped over this bad boy just sitting there in the heavily chilled store, soaking up the free, cool air, and sucking the comfort right out of those delicious, freezing floor tiles. Not a care in the world. This, my friends, is the very epitome of a street-smart Bangkok soi dog.