Lhasa Apso Articles

Tibetan dog breed, courtesy of EL Minja's Lhasa Apso kennel
Mrs Sylvia van Tatenhove van Roosenbroek

At this Lhasa Apso organization website we will provide you with all kind of Lhasa Apso articles;

Bobbie (is a White Miniature Poodle) and Misty 4 Mittens (is a Lhasa Apso)

Misty was my very first experience with a Lhasa Apso, and what an experience. How I got Misty is a sad story, I lost my miniature poodle “Bobbie” of 14 years. He had to be the best little dog in the world for me at that time. I had just lost my mother to Cancer, I was only 19 years old and was left in charge of my younger sister and 3 brothers as my father worked construction on jobs in Canada and the USA.

That meant he was gone for long periods of time. When my dad came home, Bobbie was his constant shadow. When my did would haul out his suitcase, Bobbie knew he would be leaving soon. This was the funny part, as my dad with pack his suitcase, Bobbie would unpack it, he would take the cloths out of the suitcase and hide them under my bed. Bobbie grieved with me when I lost my mother.

My mother’s sister would come and stay with us when she had doctor appointments because we were close to her doctor’s office. On those stays, my aunt would stay in my bedroom and I would share my sister’s room. Bobbie definitely did not like being put out of his room. I remember this one time, when I had already left for work and she made the mistake of not closing the bedroom door when she went to the kitchen, well when she came back, here is Bobbie laying on the bed with her false teeth in his mouth, she went to take them out of his mouth and he jumped of the bed and dived under it, her teeth and all. She has her Doctor appointment, the dog has her teeth and she is having no success with the promise of cookies or cheese to get him out from under the bed.

Finally she calls me at work and tells me her story of woe. She ends up having to take the phone into the bedroom and place the receiver on the floor under the bed so I could command him, “drop the teeth and get your little B___ out into the kitchen”. Amazingly she dropped the teeth at my aunt’s feet and went out to the kitchen to wait for his cookie reward from my aunt. The whole family laughed about that one for a long time. At her funeral many years later, he son and daughters recounted the story of Bobbie stealing her teeth.

Then a couple of years later, after my brothers and sister graduated from school, I decided it was time for a change. I quit my job with Kraft Foods and moved to Calgary Alberta. Bobbie saw me through thick and thin, I ended up meeting my now husband who had 2 children. Bobbie just would go fetch the children when it was time to eat, I’ed just have to say, time for dinner and he’d be off into their rooms, or scratching at their door if it was closed, if they didn’t respond he would bark until they opened their bedroom door. When the new house was finished we moved in and he took everything in stride.

Then one day I came home from work and he was gone. I think this hit me harder than the death of my mother, my mother had been sick for so long and with Bobbie, he was just fine when I left for work that morning and that night he was gone. I swore I would never have another dog. But coming home to no one to great you with bounces and kisses was definitely something that I missed, so 6 months later I saw an ad for Lhasa Apso puppies. I didn’t say anything to anyone, my husband or the kids, got up on Saturday morning and drove to Bennett Colorado and came back with Misty. She was black and had 4 white feet thus the name. I had no idea what I was getting into at the time, now I know that her only redeeming qualities were her personality, antics and she had an indestructible coat, which was the only part of the breed standard that she met. She was definitely pet quality, I’ve come a long way with my Lhasas since Misty.

One weekend we were having a BBQ for friends and family. My specialty was BBQ baby back ribs from scratch – BBQ Sauce included. I must have cooked about 15 to 20 racks of ribs. The goal was that there would be some left over for a couple of warmed up dinners.

After we had eaten, the weather was so beautiful that everyone went out into the back yard. I cleaned up the dishes, and had left a pan of ribs on the dining room table along with the bones from what we had eaten for disposal later. I went out to join the rest of the guests and Misty followed me out side also. One of the kids went into the house for something with Misty following behind. The kid returned but not Misty, unlike her who always had to be the center of attention, my husband says, “where is Misty?” John replied I think she’s in the house, well I jump up from my chair, slide open the door and there is Misty standing over the tray of ribs that she had removed the lid off and had stripped the meat off all the bones, she was BBQ sauce from one end to the other and she had this look on her face that I will never forget “take this away from me and your dead meat”. All I could think of was what kind of a mess I would be dealing with when all of this made its way out the other end. To my surprise, she must have had a cast iron stomach, because she never did get sick.

To this day I wish we would have had a camera to get a picture of her standing over the ribs, but we didn’t. She would also help the kids undress themselves. She would untie their shoe laces and pull off their shoes and socks, it was something she taught herself with the help of John and Debbie I’m sure.

Bobbie and Misty were the first 2 special dogs that have shared in my life.

Fran Strayer
 

Fran Strayer's Lhasa Apso "Walker" with Frank at his last Dogshow