I guess each one of us have fallen for these critters. Alice L. had MisMis, named after the Arabic word for apricot. Indeed he had shaggy blond locks, with a dark mustache and a muzzle about the size of a large black strawberry. He was larger than his mate, Rani Lanaria, who had gone gray but was originally dark gray-black. What a lovable, huggable pair.
Because of the history of inbreeding as indoor sentinel dogs to guard the monasteries, their pups, particularly the eldest, had hips higher than the rest of its trunk and had an uneven gait. But even then this pup had deep brown eyes and I can tell you she looked straight into my soul. So when it was time for Alice to give up the litter of about 4 pups, Paisa Rani Domingo-Barker came to Shanti Niketan at Dilli Bazar, from Lazimpat. I could tell that Malla, Alice's helper, was sad to see the pups leave. I had to stop by UNDP to get my mail, and got admiring comments on Paisa, from several people at the mailbox area. She was a beaut: soft tawny double undercoat and with a gentle disposition.
She had a habit of shaking nervously when there were strangers and children around, and had a distinct upper and lower tone bark. Sort of HOO (high) hoo (low) in quick succession. But Gopal our Kosi Compound chowkidar, when he brought up the Rising Nepal in the mornings, had a gentle way with Paisa, soft words and patting would make them fast friends. We had concrete steps along a small pond to go up our residence. Paisa would navigate these steps with difficulty, often flopping and not making any progress from one step up to the next. And would try again. But when excitement overtook her, she could huff and puff and use those stairs quite normally.
Steve Glovinsky of UNDP house-sat the flat while I went on mission to Beijing, for six weeks. He and Paisa became friendly: she really was good company especially on those nippy cold evenings.
MORE PAISA STORIES SOON!! SEND IN YOUR LHASA STORIES, OR OTHER PET STORIES, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE!!
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