Pudding found us, not the other way round

Pudding came to us on a rainy Tuesday in March. She was sitting under the parked motorbikes outside the 7-Eleven at the end of our soi, soaked, staring at the security guard like he owed her money. We had no plan to adopt anyone that week. Our condo does not even allow dogs over a certain size, which is one of the reasons we were still looking at cats. She was thin but not starving, with a collar mark on her neck and no chip. Nobody on the soi had seen her before. We put up a notice at the juristic office and on the community Facebook page for two weeks and nobody came. By then she had already decided she lived with us, and the security guard had started calling her Khun Pudding. The first month was mostly about the stairs. She would not go up them in the building and I had to carry her, which the guard found very funny. Now she runs up them without even looking. Her favourite spot is the balcony rail in the late afternoon when the heat finally drops a bit and the BTS sounds like a long metal snake on the tracks. She watches the cars at the traffic lights below and barks at the delivery bikes, always the same few. We took her to a vet in Bang Rak for a full check, teeth, heartworm, the lot. Teeth were bad for her age, so we had two cleanings done in the last few months, and she has been much happier eating. She still steals socks. I am not sure if she is a rescue, a stray or a dog who simply did a runaway once, and I have stopped thinking about it. What matters is she sleeps on my side of the bed every night and kicks me at 5 in the morning when she wants breakfast. Sometimes Sara asks if we would ever go back to looking for a cat. I say maybe. Pudding would not like that much, she already has opinions about the cat lady on the third floor. If you have a dog with a strong opinion about strangers, what did you do to help them relax? We are still working on it, mostly with treats and patience.