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| Lydia, a Keeshond, loves her Himalayan Chew from GollyGear.com |
"It’s unlikely that when Mullane Shrestha, 31, signed up for the Peace Corps in Nepal, she thought she’d return home with a husband, a dog and the inspiration for a pet enterprise. But that’s what happened.
While teaching women’s health and sex education in the hilly eastern district of Ilam in 2002, the Bellingham, Wash., nurse adopted a stray puppy she named Chaos. Though friendly street dogs are
common in Nepal, where people feed them scraps, most don’t live as companions. So a cooked egg mixed with rice and lentils every morning and trips to the vet, which required an overnight bus ride, made Chaos a pampered exception.
Like dogs anywhere in the world, Chaos loved to chew, and usually on verboten targets such as Shrestha’s shoes. Since there were no pet shops within a thousand miles, the American had to find locally available alternatives. She turned to chiurpi, as it is called in Nepal, dried cheese curd sticks made from boiled yak and cow milk mixed with a little citrus. Nepali herders chew the long-lasting, high-protein snack while they work.And as it turned out, Chaos loved it too.
Once back in the U.S., Shrestha continued to arrange for friends to send the hard, smoky sticks from Nepal, until her husband suggested that they make them available to other American pups. Joined by three Nepali friends in Seattle, Mullane and Nishes Shrestha have been importing and selling Himalayan Dog Chews since September 2007. The chews are made by (and purchased from) small milk cooperatives in Nepal to standards set by the Shresthas.The five friends, who do not take salaries, do all the packaging, shipping, delivering and promoting in addition to their day jobs.
Shrestha says her long-term goal is to become sufficiently successful to support producers in Nepal and to fund good works, which would make the dog chew business an extension of her work in the Peace Corps.—Lisa Wogan
