The Foreign Service Journal, June 2016

44 JUNE 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL porarily disoriented, and before he could fully recover a rival would win. A more sophisticated method was to take your dog swimming at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. The dogs enjoyed the sea, but became exhausted from struggling with the surf. And an exhausted greyhound never won a race. I issued the visas, but vowed never to bet on the dogs, how- ever popular dog racing might be among Australians. (It was often said that Australians were so addicted to gambling that at the dog races they would even bet on the bunny.) Just as dogs have to travel, so, too, do buffaloes. One of the challenges I confronted as the India desk officer was mak- ing arrangements for the shipment of an American bison to an Indian zoo. The size of the shipment made its handling extremely complicated; trucking was expensive and air travel even more so. But eventually I overcame the obstacles and a live example of American culture successfully reached India. Birds of a Feather A further complication is that not all animals are legal pets. After 18 months of captivity by guerrillas in the jungles of Colombia, Peace Corps Volunteer Richard Starr emerged with a pet parrot. Starr, whose captivity had drawn the attention of the U.S. media, refused to come home unless he could bring the parrot, his sole companion during the long months of his captivity. However, U.S. law prohibits the importation of parrots, which are classified as an endangered species. So Embassy Bogotá faced a major public relations disaster if Starr could not be persuaded to return home on the special military flight which had been sent to retrieve him. Happily, the State Department’s counterterrorism desk persuaded the Pentagon to fly Starr and his parrot to a secure military facility in Florida, where the pry- ing eyes of customs and immigration officials would not notice his avian companion. During my tour in New Delhi, I discovered that birds have an important place in Indian history. On a visit to the Rajast- hani city of Bikaner, I called on the maharajah in his palace, a 19th-century extravagance filled with hunting trophies. We were asked to join him on his skeet shooting range for tea. As we made polite small talk, he explained the importance of shooting for his family. In Bikaner, there is a small lake to which each winter imperial sand grouse migrate from Siberia by the millions. It was a favorite hunting spot for British officials, including several viceroys. The result was that Bikaner always got preferential treatment in dealing with the British authorities. As the maharajah proudly declared, the motto of his princely Foreign Service friends: a white rabbit, standing in for Updike, who was sacrificed for the stew (top left); Safira, the Marines’ mascot (below); and Anastasia, the DCM’s pet monkey. COURTESYOFANTHONYQUAINTON