Andrew Drummond

From The Times
November 27, 2002

Monarch promotes virtues of a dog’s life

From Andrew Drummond in Bangkok
 
THE King of Thailand shot to the top of the bestseller list yesterday when his subjects snapped up 100,000 copies of his book on his mongrel dog within hours of it appearing in the bookshops.

Copper became Thailand’s top dog, not merely because she is the personal pet of the monarch, Bhumibol Adulyadej, but because millions of people are looking to the animal’s story for inspiration and example.

Publishers are struggling to bring in new supplies of The Story of Tongdaeng (Thai for Copper) and now predict sales in excess of one million.
 
Copper is the result of so much cross-breeding that animal geneticists would have a serious problem tracing her roots, but King Bhumibol believes that she has the blood and characteristics of an African hunting dog. In his book, the King writes: “She is a common dog who is uncommon.” The dog shows “gratefulness and respect, different from people who after becoming important people might treat with contempt someone of lower status, who should be treated as the object of gratitude”.

The comment has been taken as reference to politicians who are voted into power and then abandon the people who elected them to set about their own aggrandisement.

Tongdaeng was presented to the King in 1988 and has since given birth to nine pups. He believes that she can call them by telepathy.