Dogs
When we first arrived in Negombo, I was alarmed to see hordes of disreputable-looking dogs lurking around at the side of the road. Remembering stories of pi-dogs in India, I was expecting to have to fend off snarling attacks at every turn and was very glad I'd had my rabies jags. Some among our acquaintance will be aware of the "Border Chicken Hound" variety of Scottish dog -many of whom are descended from a certain Fionndhei. Well, their asian cousins, the Sri-Lankan Chicken Hound, appear to have a similarly close-knit family structure; in fact I'd say they have two separate genes between the lot of them. They come in light brown or black, occasionally splodges of both, have long skinny tails like Pluto, big ears that stick out sideways, long skinny legs and bodies and the facial expression of a buddhist who is really not that disgruntled to be a dog this time around. With the exceptionof the odd restaurant-moocher or guest-house dog -who guide you on the mountain walks -these dogs appear to inhabit a parallel universe to humans -they don't really interact much at all. The dogs lie around in the road and traffic drives round them. They trot around in pursuit of their own doggy business, hardly sparing a glance for us bipeds. One notable exception was the beach dog who kept coming and sitting far too close to us, edging onto our towels with a distinctly David Niven expression on his foxy face. Like when the slightly pervy -looking loony on the bus approaches, we were not sure of his intentions and daren't shoo him in case he became violent. Ignoring him didn't work; he just sat there and breathed down my neck so we went off and had lunch instead.
Special note must be made of the "puppy heap". In the ancient cities, we learned that every Buddhist sacred area has certain features: dagoba, bo tree, relic/image house with guardstone, moonstone, dragon and dwarf carvings etc. With no intention to be disrespectful in any way, we note another endemic feature: a pile of very young puppies who wake and scamper over on tremulous legs with unfeasibly large ears to beguile the visitor.
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