Thai adoptees bring people together
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NORTHAMPTON - Like any family reunion, this one was crazy hectic, with people and dogs piling out of cars with license plates from far-flung states. There were immediate family and extended family and friends of the family. It was tough to figure out who was related to whom, and whether they were related by blood or by circumstance.
The siblings responsible for this family reunion are actually four-footed wonders, much-loved mutts named Bpui (pronounced "buoy") and Rice, Tibetan terriers who were rescued from the streets of Thailand and adopted by Americans two years ago.
"She really went from, not to be a cliche, but a rags-to-riches kind of life," said Nicole Lavin, who adopted Bpui, and then met via email the people who adopted Rice. "They were dumped on the side of the street when their eyes were barely open," Lavin said of Bpui, Rice and their litter mates.
So, how is it that people from Albuquerque, N.M., Deerfield and Hanover, N.H., came to congregate at a dog park off Burts Pit Road for a lively reunion where the main course was bite-sized bits of hot dogs (to reward the canines, of course) and whose main activity was watching pooches frolic and then take a dip in the Mill River?
The answer to that question dates back a few years, to when Lavin, 30, of Deerfield, met a woman who had adopted a street dog from Thailand. Lavin said she'd been looking to adopt a dog, and this notion of adopting from Thailand seemed intriguing, if far-fetched.
"I just thought it was crazy, but I started looking into it," she said.
"She's a little nerdy about dogs," said her boyfriend, Lucas Williams, who volunteered Monday as a crowd of 10 people and seven dogs made their way down the path on the former Northampton State Hospital grounds, which people have come to refer to affectionately as the Northampton dog park.
"The last time we were here, Nicole hired a professional photographer to take pictures of the dogs," he said.
Williams is one to talk. Among his parents and his siblings and their respective spouses (eight people in all) there are 11 dogs. They all live in Deerfield, and often meet in a field there for hikes, with all the people and all the dogs.
"It's like a doggie playground extravaganza," said Lavin.
Williams seems as devoted to Bpui as he does to the couple's other two dogs, Sherman and Tucker, both of whom were also at the reunion.
Williams, who teaches at the Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, said learning about the cultural differences regarding pet ownership between this country and Thailand has been fascinating.
"I told one of my Thai students that we adopted a dog from Thailand, and he said, 'Oh, that's very interesting. Our gardeners eat dogs,'" said Williams. "It's a totally different perspective on what it means to be a dog and own dogs."
Lavin and Williams worked with an organization known as Soi Cat and Dog Rescue. Soi is Thai for street; the organization rescues and puts up for adoption dogs and cats found on the streets of Thailand. Lavin said the group also has a catch-and-release program in which it catches street dogs and spays or neuters them before sending them back to the streets.
Lavin selected her dog from the organization's Web site, www.scadbangkok.org, where she got to see photographs of dogs ready for adoption. She said she saw a picture of Bpui (a Thai word that means tuft of cotton), who had climbed into an elevated water bowl and was sitting in it while her brother, Rice, attempted to drink from it.
"Nicole said, 'That's the dog I want,'" said Williams.
"She's completely stubborn and sassy," said Lavin. "She's me in dog form."
Once they started the adoption process, Lavin said it took about two months to complete, at a cost of about $500, which included the air fare to get Bpui here, plus the cost of spaying and vaccinations. That cost, she said, is not all that much more than what she found for domestic adoptions, but even if it had been, Lavin likely would have gone through it anyway because she is committed to rescuing dogs.
To that end, Lavin and Williams are leaving today for a two-week trip to Thailand that will be part vacation and part volunteer mission. They plan to spend some time volunteering with the organization through which they adopted Bpui.
"It's a drive," she said. "Dog overpopulation is a worldwide crisis."
Rice was adopted by Robert and Patty Wasserman, of Albuquerque, a month after Lavin got Bpui. Rice is actually their 15-year-old son Brett's dog. The family has a tradition that when their children reach age 13, they can get a dog. So when Brett Wasserman was coming of age, he went online to look.
"I came across him on that site and I was like, 'I want him. That's a really cool dog,'" said Brett as he walked Rice on a leash Monday. Rice has a small "recall problem," so the family didn't feel comfortable letting him off leash, even with his sister at his side.
The families did a lot of comparing notes, though, about their dogs.
"He's a little too smart for me sometimes," said Brett.
"That runs in the family," interjected Nicole.
"He's a good dog, very loving," said Brett.
"They sound very similar in their mannerisms," said Nicole. "They're both escape artists."
And for this reunion there was another dog from Thailand present. That would be Yim, a Thai ridgeback mix who has been in this country for about one week. Yim belongs to Marylou Hecht, who drove down for the reunion from Hanover, N.H.
Hecht said she decided to adopt a dog from Thailand after visiting the country with her daughter.
"We just saw so much dog cruelty there," said Hecht. When she got back to the States, she began researching dog rescue organizations, which led her to contact Lavin and the Wassermans about their experiences. When Lavin told Hecht about meeting up with the Wassermans, she knew what she had to do.
"Since everyone was meeting today, I wanted to come down and say hi," she said.
With the Wassermans on their way to their summer vacation home in Maine, the reunion wrapped up after about 90 minutes. Though it was quick, Lavin said it was meaningful. And though it was hard to tell from the dogs behavior that they were siblings, their owners knew they had a bond. She said she's been in regular email contact with Bob Wasserman since the winter, and at this point a true friendship has developed.
"It's really good to meet other dog people who took the same leap of faith that we did," she said. "When you meet true dog people - we all have this silly, quirky sense of humor - you know there's somebody out there who gets you."
Laurie Loisel can be reached at lloisel@gazettenet.com.
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