Bori the Pomeranian and the Sukhumvit Flash Flood

In October, Bangkok afternoons can change in ten minutes. At three o'clock the sky near Sukhumvit 24 is blue and the park is full of dogs. At three-fifteen it is the end of the world. Last week Bori and I were on our favourite afternoon walk, she in her little scarf, I with no umbrella at all, when the first big drop landed on her nose.

Bori is a cream Pomeranian with a fox face and a very loud bark for such a small dog. She is also, I learned, a dog who changes personality in rain. Within a minute the sky opened, the drains filled up and the paths turned into small rivers. Bori stopped barking at the pigeons. She looked at me with huge eyes, and then she simply sat down in the water and refused to move.

I picked her up and ran. We took shelter under the awning of a small coffee shop, where the owner, a kind older lady, gave me a towel and said that she had a Pomeranian herself. Bori, wet and flat like a small cream mop, shivered on my lap. The storm lasted forty minutes. I used the time to check her paws and her belly, and to dry her coat the best I could.

At home I did a proper job: a warm towel, then a hair dryer on low and cool settings, brushing from the roots so the undercoat did not stay damp, and a check of her skin. My vet had told me that a wet double coat can cause skin problems if it stays wet, and that I should avoid letting her walk through flood water, which can carry bacteria. Bori recovered with a bowl of warm chicken broth and a nap on my pillow.

Now my rainy-season bag is ready: a small towel, a light raincoat, a fold-up umbrella, a few treats and a plastic bag for wet shoes. I also check the weather app before every walk, and I take her out earlier in the day, when storms are less likely. Bori hates the raincoat but tolerates it when I say she looks like a little fashion model.

She now has strong feelings about clouds. When the sky goes grey, she walks home by herself, in front of me, with her tail up.