Bhutan Clan: Spot the Dog

Mouse Count: 107, today was the first 'double mouse day' in months.

Now, I’ve often talked about the animals in Bhutan but the exotic ones tend to stay pretty well hidden, except for the monkeys which are often at the side of the road regarding us with curiosity as we cruise past on the bus. But don’t be disappointed dear reader, the more common ones provide plenty of story material some funny, some sad:

One of my colleagues recently bought a new car and so all of the school staff were invited to his house for a meal to celebrate the blessing of the car. I noticed that there were loads of cute, young puppies running around trying to suckle from their harassed mother. My colleague told me matter-of-factly that they would all die in the winter when there would be hardly any food around. That is typical of the attitude to animals here: they don’t hunt or slaughter animals but they rarely feel the need to intervene on their behalf either. I’m told that there is a charity that tries to neuter some of the street dogs, but clearly (as anyone who has visited Thimphu knows) there is still a long way to go with this initiative.

Judging by the expressions, this dog STANK!

Where I live in a small block of flats, there are 4 dogs with a clear pecking order. I’d always felt sorry for the 3^rd and 4^th dogs because 1 and 2 were so dominant. But the other day I noticed that no.2 dog ‘Chalky’ is pregnant, so now I try and give her my food scraps, and yes, she love to gobble down mice as much as Fido. So I sincerely hope that she and her pups make it through the bitter winter.

Let sleeping dogs lie - a typical assembly scene

Now, something that continually amuses me here is the way that dogs just seem to be everywhere, particularly during school assembly. My favourite doggy memory is when the Principal was talking sternly to the students about their attitude to learning whilst a couple of dogs were mating loudly behind him. Once the act was over, the hapless couple were somehow stuck together and it took a good ten minutes of howling and carrying-on before they finally separated. I’m sorry to report that I didn’t have a camera with me that day.

However, I thought I’d illustrate this blog with photo-bombing pooches who weren’t necessarily the subject of the photos but nonetheless felt that the picture would be improved considerably by their presence. Now of course, it’s not just dogs that wander into places they oughtn’t. Please also look out for the cow that crashed the school awards ceremony.