Stray dog hired as security guard -- gets paid overtime

The Nepal Red Cross Society has voted to pay a monthly salary to a wounded stray dog that has taken on the job of guarding its office.

The NRCS president said the dog had turned up at the organisation's premises in the east of the country last month and remained there ever since, barking at any stranger who approached.

The NRCS working committee voted on Sunday to pay it 1,000 rupees (£9) a month, plus overtime for weekends.

"The dog is doing such a great job that we might even get rid of our night guard," Mr Bahadur Budathoki, the president said, somewhat worryingly.

"We will use the money to buy it good food and it will have meat at least once a day.

"It will also be given milk and biscuits, which it seems to really like." Funny that.

Mr Budathoki said staff at the Red Cross had taken pity on the dog, a large black mongrel, when it arrived wounded on their doorstep.

Tens of thousands of stray dogs wander the streets of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, where most people consider them a pest.

Many die in road accidents or from poisoning - an ordeal the Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre describes as "horrific", throwing the dogs into violent seizures that last for up to nine hours before they die.