Random Photos

Every day, I see different things that I think might interest my readers, and I take a photo here or there.  I find the longer I've been here, the less photos I've been taking, probably because things are beginning to become  routine, rather than new and exciting.  Here is a gallery of random photos.

The road in front of our guesthouse.
This dog is not dead, just merely sleeping.

A chicken just outside our guesthouse

This statue stands just outside Kids Plaza
just down the road from us.
Kinda scary, actually.

A couple of kids playing down by the edge
of the Siem Reap River.
A lot of debris & garbage gets tossed into the river.

Kids everywhere love boxes

A new 'recycle' store with a big picture window 
has just opened up around the corner.
People inside were stripping down to try stuff on.

Prom & Sreymau have a new puppy!
Her name is Panda

When we asked Prom if this was his new baby,
he replied "No.  Second wife."

This spider was in Sue's bathroom

When you compare its size to the hooks on the wall
you get an idea of its size...

Detail on a roof that we pass by on our walks

Cupping is a form of traditional medicine
practiced in Cambodia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_cupping

You can buy whiskey
with snakes & scorpions inside the bottle

Transporting a sign

Please, can we keep him?

A few days ago, a little puppy wandered onto the grounds of Honour Village. It could be he was small enough to fit under the gate, or the gate might have been slightly open.  Possibly, one of the kids might have let the pup in when nobody was looking.  (After all, who can resist a puppy?)  The kids played with it for a few minutes, but as soon as the staff noticed, it had to go.  There were a few long faces, but these kids are very accepting, and do as they're told.  Sorry, no dogs allowed. 

In Cambodia, dogs are not treated the same as they are in western society.  I'm sure there are veterinarians here, but the average Cambodian dog never sees a vet or gets any immunizations.  For this one reason alone, I can certainly understand and agree that it's a huge risk for the health and safety of these children to bring a stray dog  on site.

Today, another (full-grown) dog came to the gates of Honour Village.  I'm not sure if he'd noticed the children playing, or if he could smell lunch cooking, but he yelped loudly for attention.   One of the kids must have taken pity on him and let him in.  This dog was SO happy to be among so many friends!  He ran and played gleefully, but as soon as one of the staff noticed him, he was escorted off the property and the gates closed behind him.  He refused to leave.

The kids went up for their afternoon nap, and we adults sat down for lunch.  As much as the staff tried to shoo him, he would not go away.  All through our lunch, he sat on the other side of the fence and whined and cried, and tried everything he could to get back inside.  He jumped as high as he could up the gates, hoping to jump over.  He gnawed at the metal bars.  He tried to dig through the metal track at the bottom of the gate, but he could not get in.  We kept ignoring him, hoping he'd go away, but he persisted for nearly an hour.  I'm sure there wasn't one of us who didn't feel sad for him.  If ever there was a dog who wanted to be around people so badly he would do anything, this was the one.  We wanted to feed him, but knew if we did, he would only return for more food, and we would have to go through this all over again.

Please, please let me in.  I promise I'll be good!

Aw, c'mon... Can't I just play for a little while?

Maybe if I stay here long enough,
someone will change their mind....

Rules are rules.  Sometimes we have to do things we'd rather not do, like say 'no' when we really want to say 'yes'.  (And something inside me really wanted to say 'yes'.)  

One thing I know, if circumstances had been  different, and I could have, I'd have taken that dog home in an instant, because I'm betting he'd be the best pet ever. 

Life in Cambodia- Part 3- Cats & Dogs

Many of you are pet owners, and I thought it might be interesting to report on my observations about pets (cats & dogs) on the other side of the world. 

Dogs

Last year a British volunteer for the Ponheary Ly Foundation made the following blanket statement:  “All Cambodian dogs look alike.”  Take a look at the following pics, and you decide. 

We nicknamed him 'Earmuffs'

I will grant you her one thing….all Cambodian dogs act alike.  Almost anywhere you go, chances are you’ll see one sleeping - dog-tired and lazy from the heat.  I’ve even seen one sleeping in the middle of a main road at 3 am.  They invariably find a place in the shade or a cool pile of sand, or under a table… and they snooze.   

Cambodian dogs are either too tired (or indifferent) to raise their heads or move aside.  Occasionally, I’ve encountered a sleeping dog in the middle my path, and had to step over it…. and it neither blinked nor moved a whisker.  I still carry the caution of my youth about strange dogs, so if I see one with food, I give it a wide berth.  Still, in the entire time we’ve been here, I’ve yet to be challenged by any dog defending its territory or young.

Interestingly enough, all the female dogs we see have long teats, so they've obviously whelped several litters, but until a few weeks ago, we’d never seen puppies - never.  The puppies we’ve seen recently are either a special (pure?) breed, or found out in the countryside…. which leads me to wonder what happens to all the puppies?  Just saying…..

Cats

Even rarer than puppies are cats.  I don’t know if they’re just all out somewhere catching mice (or whatever vermin happens to be available), but I doesn’t seem to me that cats are generally kept as house pets here like dogs.  The first time I saw a Cambodian cat, I thought its tail had been slammed in a door, because it was short and all bent out of shape.   When most of the cats I saw after that had the same tails, I realized it must be some strange dominant gene.  They do look SO funny.  Occasionally I’ll see a long-tailed cat, but up till now, I’ve never seen a long-haired cat.  Maybe long hair just doesn’t cut it in this heat. 

OB Joyful - notice the crooked, cropped tail

Longer crooked tail

Normal tail 

The two orphanage cats at Honour Village are very different, and very special.  OB Happy(male) and OB Joyful (female) are still in the late kitten (or early teenage) stage.  They are house pets, in the same sense as we in North America have them, except they are so used to being constantly held and carried by children and staff alike, they have become totally spoiled.  OB Happy especially has to be part of the action, and insists on being cradled like a baby.

Khanit with OB Happy

I find it amusing to see cat and dog products (food, treats, shampoo, toys, etc) in all the stores.  These are obviously aimed at ex-pats, sinc there’s no way the average Cambodian could ever afford such lavish extravagance on a pet.  (Keep in mind the average Cambodian makes about $1/day, which often has to support an entire family.)  

Price = $6.00

Anyways, it is refreshing to see that OB Happy and OB Joyful are surviving well on the same thing we eat… rice, fish and vegetables.   Yum, yum!