eHHSmell for Buddy, smell for him real deep. So I smell the warm air, full of car smells and different kinds of people smells and the smell of the street and the dusty wall smells and the sky smell, hot with light, and the cloud smells, wet whiffs in the heat. I smell the salt of girls an’ boys at play, and the dense smells of grownups, and of many dogs, each one with a different scent-name. Us dogs, we have three names, a scent-name that we are born with, a bark name we give ourselves, and a talk-name that you give us.
But no matter how deep I smell, I don’t get any smell of Buddy. Now, how is that? Why can’t I find Buddy with my nose? I can find anybody with my nose!
It’s noisy here. People are lookin’ at me. Sanchez is not far away, I can still pick out his specific smells of his face, his arms, his feet. There is a shadowy place over there. I can hide there. Also, I smell other meat in there.
Yeah, it’s quieter down this alley. The other meat, it’s in that big thing over there. It’s a tall thing, so I gotta jump. Jump! Way tall, I can’t get in there. But I gotta get in. I gotta get in and get that meat!
Now, what’s this I smell? I smell many different rats is what I smell. This is their place, back here where the cars don’t come. I wanta eat one, I could eat anything! Rats and cats, there are cats in this place, too. I see ‘em way up sleepin’ up on the high stairs.
Then—voices. Talkers down where I just came from.
“Thanks for the help, George.”
It's Sanchez with his rope and I run yelling like crazy, NO! NO! NO! NO!
“Boy, Sanchez, you cannot miss that bark, that dog sounds like a cannon.”
Gotta get outa here!
“He’s real smart so if he so much as gets a sniff of me, he’ll take off. I think he’s got some a that Aussie Cattle Dog in him, maybe a little dingo, why he’s so smart. ‘Cause he knows, man. He knows what happens to ‘em, they don't get placed.”
Gotta run—but they’re there, no way around them. No, there’s a door, I can go in, hide! And I smell a lotta meat in there. Hey, a lotta meat! I’m goin’ in there!
“Oh my Lord, he went in the Chinese restaurant!”
“They find out that’s a pound dog, I’m gonna get handed my walking papers, George.”
“We better take off, then. Right quick, Luis.”
“I gotta get that dog, man! I got it manifested already.”
“So just mark it as done. Those guys get their hands on it, it’s liable to end up in the chow mein anyway.”
Oh, wow, I hit food heaven! Meat! Fish! Chicken raw, chicken cooked! Salt and sweet! Oh, I like this place, I do like this place!
An’ look, that meat on that table’s not too high up, I can go up on my hind legs. There it is, right there on that white table top. And I get up and I see the people but I can’t be careful anymore, the meat is too good and I am eating.
“A dog got in from the alley, Mrs. Wong!”
Ggggget back! Rrrrrright now! Rrrrright now!
“It’s eating all the pork I just chopped! It’s eaten three pounds of pork and it’s growling at me!”
This kid smells like my Buddy did after he grew up. I want my Buddy, where is my Buddy? Is he back in there somewhere? Is he?
“Ma’am, this dog is crazy. This dog is rabid!”
“It’s not rabid, it’s hungry.”
She comes in. She got a big thing in her hand, yellow, smells of dry grass and wood and varnish and string. Whoomp, it goes, whoomp! Flops all over me, hurts!
“Out, out!”
You’re hurrrrrrting me!
“Careful, it’s growling.”
“Don’t let it get in the dining room! Get around in front of it!”
“Stop hitting it with that broom, Ma’am, you’re making it crazy!”
I gotta get in that room, it’s fulla people and maybe Buddy.
“Stop it! Oh my God!”
Lookit all these people and all this food. They are standing up, they are yelling, they are flapping cloth at me. Why is everybody so darn interested in me? “Ged outa heah!” I know what that means!
Awright, I’m goin’. Don’t push me!
Okay, I’m out. Back in the light, didn’t get a thing to eat hardly.
But no Sanchez, so that’s a plus. So I’m going home. I am going to be with my Buddy and sleep in our bed again with my head on his feet. I am going to be right where I belong forever and not see Sanchez anymore or be in any cage.
If Buddy ain’t in town, he must be at home. So I’m goin’ back. It’s a long way, but I’ll find it.
I remember I ran and ran trying to catch up with Buddy, First, he got in clothes that didn’t smell like us, all the same color, brown clothes and he had a cap, not a hat. Then a car come up that didn’t smell like us, either, and he got in it and it went away and I run and run till my paws burn and my chest has fire in it and my nose is like ice. But the car keeps goin’ and so does the smell of Buddy.
So I follow the smell to a great big place with high fences and everybody in brown clothes and they got guns, I know what they are and sometimes I sorta smell Buddy.
I was there in day and in night. Long time. Guy gave me bacon once.
Then all of a sudden Buddy smell again real strong, real strong and this great big thing with all kinds of people smells in it goes off and I run after it 'cause I know Buddy is in there, but it gets farther and farther away, until it gets to town and goes through town and off to the far blue hills.
That's how I ended up in town. I went up and down every street until I am crossing my own scent and I am cryin’ and cryin’ but Buddy is gone for sure, gone in that thing. I sleep under porches and lick inside cartons and eat bones and whatever. Every day, I am more tired than I was before. I gotta sleep more, I gotta eat. But I gotta find Buddy, and I cannot understand and I still don’t get it, how can his scent just go off that far? Is he in the forest? Is he in the fields? Maybe the park. I go down toward the meadow where we played Frisbee and this is when Sanchez gets me, wham, all of a sudden I am in his net. I bite, I bark, I gnaw, but it will not give way.
Then I am dumped in the cage in the dark that is full of all of these other dogs and cats in cages, and I am not happy. But I am Buddy’s dog, so I figure I must have been put here to wait for him. So I wait. And I wait. Soon Nothin’ gets put in the cage with me. I still wait.
Now I got out, I’m gonna find my Buddy on my own. I don’t need to wait no more.
Except this street, it’s got cars goin’ all around me. They go way faster than me!
Hey, Buddy! Hey, Buddy! Here comes Bob! Bob’s comin’ home! Hey, Buddy, hey, Buddy, got our Frisbee?
Then a car comes, oh! It’s goin’ scrreeeee and it’s gonna eat me up! I’m runnin’, I gotta get outa here, then another one behind me, goin’ scrreeee, it’s tryin’ to eat me up, too! I don’t like those wheels, I don’t like ‘em. What’re you gonna do, you dumb wheel, comin’ after Bob!
Hey! Heyheyhey!
Screeee, where’d that one come from?
“That poor dog, mother, it’s lost!”
“We can’t stop here.”
Screeee! Ho-o-o-nk!
I wish I knew how to get outa here but all I can smell is cars and street. I’m in a herd of cars and I’m real scared, cause these cars don’t like me and I was made to work cattle, not cars, they don't obey you. Cattle you can bark at and they go where you want ‘em to. Cars got them big eyes and big mouths and they come after you, they trample you worse than any bull. I seen Daisy that time they brought her back and put her on the porch and it took a long while ‘fore Doc Williams got her goin’ again. They kill us, too, the cars. I seen that.
I’m away from the cars now, somehow, and I’m lopin’ with my long lope that lasts me all day, the lope I used when we went on long walks, me and Buddy, when we went way back in the hills and slept under the stars. I sorta slept. Lookin' out after my Buddy, scenting the lion in the far distance, and the javelina.
I lope this way followin’ the herd, too—the cattle—lope through the day, watch by night. I miss the cattle, I do, but not like I miss my Buddy.
He got so tall his head went way up in the air. Then the sweet-scented girls started coming to see us. Mary and Angie and Collette came in the summer evenings, and we stayed on the porch with me under the swing and them doin’ that hackle cackle laughin’ thing up above, and me, I am smelling the air for coons, javelinas or bobcats or whatever I might need to protect us from. The lions, they don't come down this far.
When the moon was low, we’d take the girl in the pickup to her place, and I’d get to sit up front with Buddy afterward, and he’d say, “Hey, Bob, you're a good dog.”
I sure am, Buddy! I sure am! And I miss you, Buddy!
I do a real long, deep inhale, and I still smell cars, but also grass, dry with summer, some of it pushed down and bleeding green grass blood, some of it thick and sweet.
Cars don’t like grass. They don’t go on grass.
Now I see it, a whole lot of it! There are kids on it! It’s fulla kids, so Buddy must be there! And they got a wonderful ball! They got a big white wonderful ball, I like that ball! Oh, look at that ball, he kicked it with his head, it went all the way up, it went all the way way way up!
Way up and then down, and they’re kickin’ it. It’s gettin’ away from ‘em, it’s goin’ toward that kid. ‘Cept that kid’s gonna miss it, uh-oh! I’m gonna get it for you, kid! I’m gonna be a good dog!
“Hey, git off the field! G’on, git!”
Wha-a-a-t? We're playin’ ball here and you want me to git?
“‘Darn dog! That goal counts!”
“Does not!”
“The dog interfered! It woulda gone in!”
Gottaplay! Gottaplay! Throwit! Throwit! Gottaplay!
"Get the scruff of its neck, Dave."
“Whaddaya, crazy? I ain't goin' near that. That's a hyena.”
“It's one a them crosses—a dingo cross, it’s in offa some ranch."
"Hey, fella, where’s your cows? You lost your cows?”
Cow! I know what that means! But where are they? I don’t smell ‘em. I don’t see ‘em. They smell like grass ‘cause grass is what they eat. I love to make my cows go where Buddy wants ‘em to 'cause that's my work and boy do I love to do my work! “Work, Bob,” Buddy says or Dad says, and this dog does his work!
Oh, he’s holdin’ the ball up high. Lemme play! Lemme play! I wannawannawanna! Lemme play! I wannawannawanna!
“Git!”
Ah, come on.
“Gwan, git!”
You sure?
Wham, he stamps his foot and dust comes up.
But we’re playin’ ball, and I gotta—uh oh, what’s that I see comin’ along the street?
The cage car! An’ Sanchez, I smell ‘im! Bob’s gotta run, kids, an’ I am so sorry to have to leave you, I know you want to play.
“Boy, look at him skedaddle!”
“He sure knows that pound truck.”
This way there is more grass, and so this is the way I’m goin’, ‘cause the cage car can’t follow, they won't run on grass, the crazy things.
I’m getting’ hot, my tongue is way out, but I gotta run, I can’t stop, I gotta get away from the cage and Sanchez, I gotta find Buddy, Buddy is all I am thinking about, Buddy’s exact smell.
Hey! Hey! Buddy!
I see water. I was smellin’ so hard for Buddy I didn’t notice it was there and I’m thirsty! I go down to the water. It’s real grassy, so the cage truck ain’t gonna come here. There are some kids here, too, sittin’ by the water. They must be smellin’ it too, the cool and sweet of it, and the slick ick of the fish in it.
‘Cept I smell something else, and this I don’t like. I don’t like that smell, I don’t like it at all, and I don’t like it near those kids, no sir. And now I hear it. Sssss, slidin’ in the grass. Then it stops. It ain’t movin’ now. Its scent changes, gets wetter and more musty.
It is scared. But it is also not moving toward those kids anymore and I’m thirsty, I gotta get a drink! The water is real cool, it feels good leaking into my fur as I wade out. Now I’m in up to my belly and I’m lapping, it’s good. It’s good, boy I was hot.
Thhht! Thhht!
Uh-oh, it’s right there, gray and coiled up. But I gotta drink more! It’s good, I’m so thirsty! But the snake—it's goin’ down there where the kids are sittin’ and that snake don’t belong anywhere near my kids!
I'll drink later, my kids need ole Bob 'cause that snake’s smell is mixin’ up with their smells and I don’t like that. Gotta lie down, though. Sumpin’ in me’s goin’ wham wham wham! What is that in my chest?
That snake is goin’ up there real near them kids. Why don’t they smell it?
Heyheyhey! Heyheyhey!
They don’t even notice. Now it’s just under where they’re sittin’. They’re eatin’. I’m hungry, too. Oh, smell that! Bob lo-o-ves ham!
Thhht! Thhht!
One of the kids says, “What’s that noise?”
“Dunno. It’s right over there.”
Thhht! Thhht!
“Is that a snake?”
“There’s no snakes here.”
Heyhey!
“Hey, lopsided dog, where’d you come from?”
“Ew, it’s ugly.”
"Part hog? Could there be a hog dog?”
Bob’s not gonna let that snake get his kids. I protect my kids, yessir! Except, um, can I have some ham?
“It’s after my sandwich!”
No ham? Okay, I’ll wait on that. You kids ever been near Buddy? Lemme smell you.
“No! Down! Oh, Peter, it’s vile!”
Nope, there’s none of his scent on you, girl. What about you, boy? Can I lick you, maybe find a taste a Buddy?
“You’re a friendly dog, aint’cha?
You don't taste a bit like Buddy, oh, my heart.
“It licked you, Charlie! Get the Lysol!”
Thhht!
The snake. Its scent is acid and wrinkly now.
“Pete, there is a snake right there, I am looking at it.”
“Don’t even breathe.”
Thhht! Thhhht!
The coils tighten and it can't bite my kids so I jump and get in the way of the fangs reeking with poison and I feel it against my jaw and I snap and I got it and I’m biting and I’m shaking and you are not gonna get those kids, those are my kids in my pack and Buddy’s pack and you are not gonna!
OW OW OW!
Got me!
“He killed it! He killed a rattlesnake! Mom! Dad!”
“Careful, son, I’m coming!”
“That dog! Look, it killed a rattler right by us. A rattler, dad!”
I better not eat it, they’re gonna get mad for sure. Buddy got mad if I ate snakes. What the heck was the matter with him, they’re dee-licious! But I’m gonna drop it. I’m gonna drop it right at the kid’s feet, and oh, my leg hurts. My leg really hurts. I gotta find a hole to go in till I get well.
“Peter, get away from that mutt, it’s a mess.”
“He killed that rattler, Mom, and it was striking, it was in the air about ten inches from Kim and he jumped up and pulled it right outa the air. That is one fast dog.”
The bigun, he’s comin’ down, he’s lookin’ at me.
“C’mere, dog!”
Uh-oh, I don’t like this. You be rrrrrreal careful, buster! You be rrrrreal careful!
“It’s growling, Peter,” the bigun says.
“Oh look at its leg, the snake got it, dad!"
“C’mon, boy. It’s okay now, it's okay.”
Oh, he’s talkin’ to me. Better be careful, though.
“C’mon, doggie. C’mon!”
Come? Me? Somebody wants me?
“Yeah!”
Ohhhhh—KAY!
“He really likes me!”
Let’s go! Let’s go! Oops, I’m not workin’ too good. I hurt! I hurt in my whole back end. My leg is bit. It’s real stiff now and I can’t make it go.
“Can I take ‘im home, Dad? Can I?”
“He needs to go straight to the vet.”
Can I lie down with my head on your foot, kid? Buddy let me. I sleep my very best with my head on your foot and I gotta sleep now.
“It’s closing its eyes.”
I hear a car. Sanchez? I’m too tired to run.
“Get the space blanket, I do not want that thing messing up the rear deck.”
We’re gettin’ in the car. I know because I can smell it even though I can’t open my eyes. I feel real bad. If I had one of Buddy’s socks to smell, I sure would be glad. He yells at me if I chew ‘em, but that’s okay, he can yell at me all he wants, my Buddy. He never hit me, my Buddy. The bulls, though, they will come back at you and you better stay outa range of those horns and hooves.
I want to work them, though, I want to work them in the fresh wet scents of dawn, and bark and bark and make them turn, you just cannot imagine how good it is, how sweet in my heart, to make the cattle turn.
We’re in the car. The kids are on the other side of a hump and I’m back here. I can’t get up. I wish I had my nose near the kids. I wish I could stick my head out. I love to stick my head out.
I am cold. I feel bad. What is that whamwham, whamwham, inside me? Jus’ keeps goin’ faster and faster.
The car is stoppin.’ Wherever we are, we’re there.
“Let’s get it outa the car, Pete.”
“Don’t touch that flank, you’ll get bit. What kind of an injury is that? Do you know?”
“It’s snakebit, Dr. Gordon.”
“Oh, Lord, Peter, that is not good. I can try the antivenin, but if there’s too much necrosis, I’ll have to amputate. I’d recommend you destroy it at that point.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not our dog, Doctor,” the bigun says. “We better take it to the pound.”
“Dad, please!”
“Peter, the dog is dying.”
“Where’d you find it, Pete?”
“It was in the park, Doc. Got between the snake and Kim.”
“It’s pretty far gone. Look, it’ll cost you a hundred dollars for the antivenin treatment. I can put the animal down for forty, and that’s my recommendation. It’s gonna be hard on this animal to move him to the pound, even.”
“Dad, please, let’s just give him a chance.”
“If he gets well, Pete, then you have a dog. And the responsibility.”
“Miss Kitty will not be amused, Peter.”
“He saved your life, Kim!”
I feel a hard stab in my neck. I feel it and then everything goes black. I am nowhere.