Pla Too and the Great Café Floor Incident

Pla Too is a pied French bulldog with a face like a worried little mackerel. That is how he got his name, and it fits. He wheezes up the stairs of our Thonglor townhouse, sits at the top and waits for applause. If nobody claps, he sighs and tries again. He is two and a half years old and has never once been embarrassed.

The café on the ground floor of our block is, as far as he is concerned, his second home. The tiles are cool, the barista Pim keeps a bowl of water for him, and customers give him their full attention. On hot afternoons he lies on the stone floor right under the air-con vent like a very small sunbathing walrus.

Now the incident. One Saturday I was on a video call upstairs when I heard a very strange noise, a kind of muffled grunt followed by loud clapping and laughter. I ran downstairs. Pla Too had gone under the long wooden bench at the back of the café to hunt a dropped piece of croissant, and he had gone in just far enough that his round shoulders would not let him come out. Only his back half and a very offended tail were visible. Half the café was filming. The barista lifted the bench, I pulled him out by the harness, and he walked straight to the water bowl, drank, and sat down with his head held high.

We laughed for a week. But the incident reminded me how little room a flat-faced dog has to cool himself when he panics. I use a harness, not a collar, because our vet told us that collars press on the throat of dogs like him. The vet also said these dogs overheat much faster than long-nosed ones, and to avoid midday walks completely, keep a fan on him at home and never leave him in a car, even for a minute. We follow that strictly. Hot afternoon means strictly indoors with a fan pointed at him, and walks happen before eight or after the sun sets.

Pla Too has no idea that anyone worries about him. He gives everyone his best head tilt, the one that makes people melt, and he knows exactly what it does. The café now keeps a small sign on the bench: "Please check under here for a French bulldog." It is true, and it is the best advertisement the café ever had.