Dogs are to Asia what Cats are to the Middle East, what chickens are to the Hawaiian island of Kauai: Stray. Feral. Wild. Whatever you want to call them.
Before I started my travels, my travel doctor pondered whether I might need a rabies shot on top of all the other immunisations I had to get. Now I know why. There seems to be no shortage of stray dogs wandering the streets of Thailand. Many of them look quite sick. Many just lie around in the street and on sidewalks, where pedestrians give them a wide berth. The only ones that really seemed threatening were recent mothers nursing pups. You just had to make sure you never got between them and their young.
Egypt, on the other hand, seemed to be full of stray cats. They were interesting to watch as they looked like they were always scheming to score some food. They would travel in gangs, using each other as lookouts while they found ways to sneak into buildings through broken windows and other openings.
The Hawaiian island of Kauai, as I mentioned earlier, was full of jungle fowl known as “Moa” and introduced by the Polynesians. Basically, they were chickens and roosters who loved to cock-a-doodle-do at all hours of the night and day (which was particularly fun while you were camping). The strangest scene I recall with these creatures was a family of chicks being herded by its mother through a crowded Walmart parking lot.
I guess it’s a good idea that all these strays are segregated in different parts of the world, or they’d never get along.
