When the coronavirus lockdown in Bangkok eased a bit after six weeks, the first appointment my family made was not for a medical check-up or a walk in a park.
Instead, we called the pet salon. Caper, our 9-month-old miniature schnauzer, was desperate for a trim.
Thailand remains under a state of emergency through at least the end of May, with almost no international flights in or out. But because of the country’s low confirmed caseload of virus infections — about 3,000 cases and 56 deaths, as of Saturday — certain businesses have been allowed to reopen under strict social distancing and hygiene limits.
Businesses given the green light are most restaurants, cafes and street-food vendors; markets; dining-in sections of supermarkets and grocery stores; public parks and outdoor sporting complexes; hair salons and barber shops — and pet grooming salons.
Yes, that’s right, pet salons are important enough an industry in Thailand to merit their own category, alongside parks and restaurants.
Monica, a Pomeranian, sits in a pet drying device that is touted as having anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties in Bangkok on May 7.
Bangkok is crazy for purebred dogs. All over town, you will see Labradors and Weimaraners, Pomeranians and pugs. There are too many Yorkshire terriers. Some wear nail polish, and many wear clothes.
A puppy hair cut might seem frivolous, but let me explain. It is the hot season in Thailand, when temperatures hover around 100 degrees. The schnauzer’s natural coat, thick and woolly, is more suited to the Black Forest of its native Germany than a tropical metropolis like Bangkok.
Caper was hot. We were hot just looking at Caper, whose coffee-brown eyes were disappearing underneath prodigious, professorial eyebrows.
All her panting was, frankly, a little unnerving. I worried what people might hear during phone interviews.
I tried trimming her, as my husband held her down, a project that went as well as you might expect when two journalists with zero expertise attempt animal topiary. (In my defence, I am left-handed and was using right-handed scissors.)
When I heard that the lockdown might be relaxed a bit, my husband quickly called the pet salon. We secured an appointment for 4pm on Sunday, the very day certain businesses were allowed to resume operations under certain conditions. There are no walk-ins; the premises have to be cleaned every couple hours; and workers have to wear appropriate personal protective equipment.
Our Sunday was much like the previous 42 days under lockdown. We played board games with our children, and we ate no-knead bread. But at 3.50pm, my husband grabbed his mask and a very fuzzy dog. He hopped on the back of a motorcycle taxi, Caper’s beard billowing in the breeze.
When they arrived at the Tender Loving Care Pet Wellness Center, there was a cancan line of chow chows awaiting their treatments. A bulldog idled, too.
An employee was hosing off the driveway. My husband had his temperature taken and filled in a health form. Caper, after six weeks spent only with my family, was overwhelmed by the bustle and promptly urinated on the floor.
The salon has a swimming pool, to blunt the heat for the wintry breeds that are unaccountably popular in Bangkok — all those huskies and malamutes and Samoyeds. A paddle in the pool, with a life jacket and personalized trainer, followed by a bath and blow-dry, costs 300 baht for a toy breed and 800 baht for a heftier one.
Buddy, a beagle, cools off at the Trail and Tail Pet Community pool in Bangkok on May 7.
A grooming session with hypoallergenic shampoo, brushing, blow-dry, cut and nail clipping goes for 700 baht for a Caper-sized dog. Cat grooming, inexplicably, costs less.
The groomer went to the Starwood Arts of Dog Grooming School, which one of the salon’s owners, Patcharapan Ngamukos, assured me was the best in the country.
The price of 700 baht may not seem like a lot by the standards of New York or London, but it is roughly equivalent to the average daily wage in Thailand, which has one of the widest wealth gaps among the world’s major economies.
In the two weeks after the government unveiled a coronavirus relief fund for workers in the informal economy, more than 27 million people in a country of about 70 million applied online. Tourism, an economic mainstay, has been hit hard. Most unemployed workers have not received their relief checks.
The Soi Dog Foundation, which tries to find homes for the large number of strays roaming Thai streets, has begun an emergency appeal because the international flight ban has disrupted overseas adoptions.
With unemployment rates climbing and more mass layoffs expected, some Thais are shedding their purebred pets, with their expensive haircuts and taste for imported kibble. There are also worries — unfounded, scientists say — that pets can transmit the coronavirus to their owners.
Since reopening, though, the salon has been booked solid. There are Shih-Tzus who can barely see because their bangs have grown too long and Dobermans who need their teeth brushed.
“We’re really busy because a lot happened to the dogs during those six weeks,” Ms Patcharapan said.
“Well, I mean, not a lot happened,” she added. “But their hair grew way too long.”
Caper, with her new cool cut, would likely agree.
A dog gets groomed at the Trail and Tail Pet Community salon in Bangkok on May 7.