When Paisa reached puberty, she was mated with a snow-white Lhasa belonging to a Tibetan chap who ran Himalayan Movers, a friend of Alice L. Paisa Rani was a gentle and good Mom. Mangal, Maheswori, Gyano, and the kids Gayatri and Madhav, and and the rest took turns feeding them with special food. We turned the tool shed into a "Doggie Hotel" and some of the furnishings, canine vitamins and special tins of doggie food came from Germany, courtesy of Brigitte-Memsaab of Neckermann Travel. There were four in the first litter: Rakshi and Phorba stayed with us while good homes were found for La Bamba (the Garcias of UNDP) and Donna. (Am writing this in Bangkok, most of the Lhasa puppy photos are in the Seattle bodega).
Then on one trip out at Boudanath, I found a shoe repairman who had a gorgeous Lhasa puppy wrapped in his leather apron: I offered the equivalent of ten dollars to buy him, and he bargained for twelve. So I came home with another Lhasa puppy, all white and streaks of tan. Gorkha was covered in fleas and ticks. Had to use a kerosene bath to get rid of them. And for days and days he smelled of leather and kerosene. A few weeks later, he contracted parvo virus before I could take him to the vet for his shots.
Then Brigitte-Memsaab boarded her Khukri with us until he was ready to be shipped out to Munich, in two years. He was supposed to be pedigree but turned out to be a mutt: a snout longer than the others, shorter legs and coarser hair than the other Lhasas. And limpid eyes that looked at you as though he was reading your thoughts. But the group lived as a pack. They knew their limitations: they were not to play with Snowy, Elizabeth Hawley's white Lhasa who was kept on a leash close to the Himalayan Fund office in the compound, and who spent only a few minutes outdoors with his Ayah.
They were not allowed to go out the confines of Kosi Compound. I used a tailor just across the busy-traffic street: I witnessed a near-collision between a three wheeler and a pedestrian, when Phorba decided she wanted to come with me for a fitting at the tailor's: not even the chowkidar's chasing her away prevented her from crossing the street. And she had a habit of jumping and catching the pleats of saris of visitors in the compound. I had often offered to pay for the tooth-damaged saris but was always dismissed with a smile.
The times when Brigitte arrived with her travel group, Khukri would stay with her, often at one of the Bhandary apartments next to us. Khukri would be returned for his meals and playtime with us, and smelled richly of Nina Ricci.
Photo: Russell, our XXL Tibetan mastiff, and the backside of Phorba. Russ was a large beast: this breed is meant to be fierce guard dogs. He ate like a horse and there was no such thing as leftovers with the others. He had a lovely thick coat, all the more to be out there in the Himalayan snow. One day he bit David in the wrist: that was the end of him because there is no telling when the vicious genes would turn up. He ended up in Karma and Margot's farmhouse at the fringe of the King's Forest. Their property , formerly a rice field, was unfenced but had large tracts of space he could run around in, just doing his chowkidar duty.
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