Animal Stories - Bhutan
by Hootoksi Tyabji
The Chicken, the Dog and the Bandage
Soon after we moved into our farmhouse in Thimphu, we acquired three stray dogs, a cat, half a dozen ducks, a chicken and a fighting cock rescued from the Nepali labour camp nearby. His aggressive nature soon obliged us to return him to the battlefield! One of our chickens hatched a duck’s egg and seemed quite miffed when her chick grew webbed feet! And then there was this one hen who is the star of this story.
Each animal had its own individual quirks and traits, except for our Labrador Akbar, who undoubtedly was the saint among them. As his name suggests, he had a regal bearing and an incredibly kind, patient, tolerant and compassionate nature. He loved the world and all living things in it and handled everyone with his special brand of care and consideration.
Bhutan is a Buddhist country where everyone eats meat, but nobody will slaughter an animal. We went to the weekly market on Sunday mornings, to buy meat that came up from India, and live chickens that we had to slaughter ourselves if we couldn’t find a Nepali kancha (an affectionate term used to indicate a younger brother) to do it for us.
One Sunday morning at the weekly market friends from Australia bought two chickens for a curry. Greg knocked them on the head amidst loud wailing and protests from his two young children. He tied their legs and lowered them into a pot of boiling water but one miraculously flapped it's wings and Greg pulled it out just in time to save its life! Taking this to be a sign of divine intervention, her legs were untied, and she became the household pet for the next couple of years until it was time for the family to leave Bhutan. They figured our "zoo" would be a safe place for their chicken and soon Chook (that was her name) joined our menagerie with a promise from us that she would never be eaten!
Chook settled in very nicely and laid us some fine eggs. There was only one problem we had with her and that was trying to get her to understand that she should not peck and eat form Akbar’s bowl while he was eating.
The other creatures large and small had long realized this and so got used to waiting for Akbar to finish his meal before picking his bowl clean. But with Chook no amount of shooing from us or growling and snapping from Akbar worked. She would rudely push his head aside to make room for herself at the bowl. She must have believed herself infallible, but one day her luck ran out and the inevitable happened! Akbar snapped at her and all hell broke loose!
It happened on a Sunday. Rob and I were upstairs when we heard this hysterical crying and wailing from the children with Rajamma (our maid) shouting above the din. Rushing downstairs, we saw Chook standing on one leg looking deeply sorry for herself with her stomach and intestines spilled out of the gash in her side and lying on the ground around her! Akbar had disappeared in fright.
Without a word, Robert scooped up Chook and her bits and marched upstairs to our bathroom with the lot of us trailing behind. He placed the dazed and dying bird in the basin and stuffed her bits back into her, then poured half a bottle of hydrogen peroxide over the mess and bound her tight with a long gauze bandage! I was certain she wouldn’t make it through the night, but she did! Not only did she make it, but she was back the next afternoon peck, pecking away on one leg at Akbar’s food while he ate!
Now the story does not end here. A week later, Farhad (always the first to notice the slightest change in any animal or bird) reported to me that Chook had something hanging from her beak, and it was not a worm! On closer inspection it turned out to be a bit of bandage. Off she was carried into our bathroom again by an irate Robert who pulled and pulled and pulled out the yards of bandage that she had swallowed!
Chook was not at all harmed by this major mishap. Robert theorized that the action of pulling out the bandage had bottle-brushed Chook’s insides, rearranging and thoroughly cleansing them! Whatever the truth, she laid the finest eggs and continued pecking around Akbar as he ate his food at his bowl!
Power, Meat and Leopards
We were probably one of the few if not the only family in Thimphu to own a chest freezer and whenever Robert was in Phuntsholing or Siliguri for work, he would come back home with a trunk full of meat which we froze.
Once when the electricity went off for more than 24 hours and Robert was out of town, I decided to try and save the meat from rotting by hanging it outside our front door on the first floor of the house. It was freezing cold so I was certain it would keep better hanging outside than in a freezer that wasn't functioning!
In the dead of night, there was a huge commotion downstairs. The chickens, ducks, dogs, cats all started making a noise and then suddenly there was dead silence. It was eerie to say the very least! A moment later Akbar who was in the bedroom with me charged out and started barking and whining; I held him by the collar, turned on the landing light outside and opened the front door and in that instant I saw a full grown leopard who bolted with the light and was gone in a flash!! He had been attracted to the smell of the meat! I quickly put it in the freezer and thankfully the electricity was back the next morning so we were saved from having to throw it all out!