Dog on the Tracks

Tainan Station is the main station for Tainan, one of Taiwan's five biggest cities.  It's also a home to some dogs, apparently.

 I've put up some pictures before of dogs wandering around on Cheng Kung's campus, but it's not just the campus that has dogs wandering around.  There seem to be lots of stray dogs all over Taiwan.  They're mostly very friendly and calm, and many of them look well-fed, so they aren't feral dogs really.  I think people may kind of look out for them, and maybe it's even the case that some people have "outdoor dogs" the same way some people in the US have "outdoor cats".  I'm not entirely sure.

 I saw this guy while waiting for a train at Tainan station.  He came wandering over to say hi, and then a station employee came by and sort of stomped his foot at the dog in an attempt to make him go away from the track right next to the platform where the train was about to pull in.

A very obliging dog.

以上の写真は一週間前の台南駅の写真だ。台南市は台湾の五番目に大きい都市で、此の駅は中央の駅だ。にもかかわらず、野良犬が路線の辺りに棲んでいる。
今日は華語センターのトリップが有って、日本人の学生に出会った。彼等は俺が日本語が話せると分かってから、ずっと一緒に喋った。野良犬が台湾に多いと言う話題が出て、一人の日本人は面白い事を言った。「昔は日本にもこういうふうな野良犬が多くいたらしい」と。本当？俺が長崎に住んでいた頃、野良猫は沢山見掛けたけど、野良犬は一回だけだった。（しかし、其れは野良犬か、一時的に主から逃げた犬か分からなかった。）
また読者の皆さんにの質問だけど、たしか、一緒に話した日本人は「離れ犬」と言う表現を使ったと思うけど、俺の聞き違いかも。「離れ犬」と言う表現有るのか？大阪の人だから、方言かも。