Who are you calling a bitch?

THAILAND’S King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is 88, has a favourite dog. Thongdaeng (“Copper”) is a stray whom he adopted in 1998. Four years later he penned a best-selling book about her. Thongdaeng, he wrote, is a “respectful dog with proper manners”. She is “humble and knows protocol. She would always sit lower than the King; even when he pulls her up to embrace her, Thongdaeng would lower herself down on the floor, her ears in a respectful drooping position, as if she would say ‘I don’t dare’.”