It’s been a bleak 72 hours on the news cycle, what with word coming in that we’re signed up for at least another three years of a climate policy that amounts to sticking our fingers in our ears and yelling LA LA LA, plus, you know, privileging the rich over every other miserable blighter just trying to make a go of it, etc. etc.
So it is with great joy that I bring to you a bit of good – nay, GREAT – news of the very best genre: HERO DOG.
The protagonist of this story is a plucky Thai pooch named Ping Pong (PING PONG!!!), who rescued a newborn baby who’d been (okay brace yourself this next bit is not actually so heartwarming) buried alive near a cassava plantation in north-east Thailand.
Ping Pong, a six-year-old goodboi who only has the use of three legs after a run-in with a car, was spotted by his owner, 41-year-old farmer Usa Nisaikha, digging, sniffing and barking at a pile of dirt in Ban Nong Kham village.
The pooch’s scratching revealed a tiny leg poking out from the soil. The baby was promptly unearthed and taken to hospital, where doctors found he luckily hadn’t suffered any serious injuries.
The baby boy was buried by his teenage mother shortly after she gave birth, alone, after concealing her pregnancy from her parents. She has been charged with child abandonment and attempted murder, and she says she feared what her parents would do if they found out she’d had a child.
Meanwhile, Ping Pong is being rightfully hailed a hero.
Mr Usa told local media that he’d got Ping Pong as a puppy:
Ping Pong was hit by a car, so he’s disabled. But I kept him because he’s so loyal and obedient, and always helps me out when I go into the fields to tend to my cattle.
He’s loved by the entire village. It’s amazing he found the baby.
More Ping Pongs, less ning nongs in parliament, please. That’ll be my motto for the next three years and there’s no-one who can take that away from me!!
