Okay? I can get up? Yeahyeah? Oh, yeahyeahyeah!
Oops.
Whoa, you are new! You weren’t here a minute ago. You musta been waitin’ out in the dark, watchin’ what I was gonna do. Well, I ain’t gonna do much, buster, not with you around.
Nossir! Jus’ gonna follow along like the rest. Okay. That’s cool. I’m cool.
My throat hurts. That guy has big teeth, he really shook me. And he’s smart, too, he musta hidden behind his pack’s scent, that’s why I never smelled him or heard him comin’. That’s smart.
Sssst! Sssst!
You’re coverin’ my marks!
Kaieeeerrrrr!
Uh, heh heh heh. I mean, it’s your pack, so you do what you want. Okay by me! Want I should roll again? Roll for the pack? Let ‘em sniff and I don’t sniff back? Okay! I’m good wit that!
Man, now everybody’s takin’ turns standin’ over me. I’m goin’ to be the follow-dog in this outfit I thought I was about to take over. They’re small but they are tough.
I like ‘em! I want to be follow-dog. This is a great bunch. Hell, they’re all better’n me. ‘Cept, I am bigger. So maybe later—but well, that’s not for now.
‘Cause now we’re on the move. We’re goin’ somewhere, and it’s a huntin’ lope and I am SOOO HUNGRY! Great idea, a hunt! We’re led by a great guy. I like to follow him. I like to be follow-dog in the scents of all of ‘em.
We’re movin’ fast. Goin’ up and down the rolling hills. What’s that I smell ahead? Oh, hey! Cattle! Hey! Hey!
Skrrrreeee!
Guess that means shaddup. ‘Cept I never got shut up by no thing like you before.
The cattle’re close and we’re slowin’ down. We’re spreadin’.
Omygawsh, are we huntin’ that little calf over there? I can’t, ‘cause I don’t kill cattle, not ever ever ever!
I gotta protect that calf! I run, I get between the creatures and the calf. NO! NO! NO! NO!
They just spread and go low, creepin’ fast toward it…and, oh my, it does smell sweet. I never let myself even think of eatin’ a calf. NO! No…no?
I so hungry and—but NOT A CALF, NO BOB, BUDDY SAYS NO!
Now he’s gettin’ under it!
And yourrrrre wrrrong! Yourrre wrrrong!
And the others, they’re all jumpin’ on it, they look like flyin’ shadows. It’s wobbling and hollering and—this should not be! This should not be!
Hey! Hey! Get offa there! Get offa there! I’m not gonna let you—
Oh! Oh, my. So sweet, so hot, so good, so real, real good! I gotta get my muzzle in there, too! I never tasted nothin’ like this! Oh, it’s so go-o-o-od, it’s the sweetest, the smo-o-o-thest food I ever tasted.
Gotta eat! Eat! Oh, this’s good, this’s great!
OW! WOW! You’re bitin’ me, you’re drivin’ me away, but I gotta eat, I need it, too! I gotta! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Ree-kaii eee!
Okay! Say no more! I get the drift all right. I’ll go over here. I’ll wait.
Oh, I am sad now! Bob is sad because he has done biggest NO NO BOB there is.
I sorry. I sorry, Buddy. But I hungry. I so hungry.
I’m waitin’ and waitin’ an they’re eatin’ an eatin’. I oughta run. But that meat sure smells good. And they’re movin’ off. It’s my turn and I go in and I grab the bones an gnaw an gnaw and cra-a-ack they go, and meat comes out and I just throw it down my gullet.
I get as much as I can. Not enough, but at least it’s somethin’. I’m bottom dog, but I got a little somethin’.
I am also a bad dog and my tail is down ‘cause I can hear Buddy tellin’ me NO.
Oh, we’re on the move! We’re traveling somewhere. Not back where we came from. They got another lie round here somewhere, I can smell it.
I smell water and I’m thirsty! Now I hear it bubbling and burbling along. Quick water.
I feel more and more like I belong running behind this bunch. I’m way back at the end but that’s okay.
Water! I don’t hafta wait behind the others for the water like I did for the meat. Oh, the water is small, it’s bubbling over stones, it’s full of cold. I like this water, it feels good on my tongue, it makes me glad.
I’m tired I gotta sleep. My leg hurts. My neck hurts. In fact, I hurt just about everywhere.
We’re all lyin’ down, so I am, too. They each curl up and stick his nose down between his paws, so I do, too. ‘Cept I got a real big muzzle and kinda small paws, so it ain’t very convenient. It keeps my nose warm and I smell just myself and the dirt and the grass under me that is going “shaaaaooooo” as we cuddle down in it.
Soon as it gets quiet, I am thinkin’ ‘bout that calf. Buddy protects cattle and puppies and people and everything! Buddy DOES NOT kill no calfs.
Oh, Buddy, I so sad but I sooooooo hungry! OOOOeeeeeeeee!
Buddy, I am rollin’ to you, I know I bad, I rollin’ but you aren’t here to take my roll.
I take deep scent, smelling for Culebra, smelling maybe even for you my Buddy, if you want me anymore, a dog as bad as me.
Thing is, I’m hungry again already ‘cause I didn’t get near as much as the others, and the truth is, I want to eat another calf.
I’m cold and I’m wet and I’m bad, but I wanta go back and get the other calf that was there.
But we’re sleepin’ now, so I gotta, too. We’re sleepin’ under a mad sky, listen to that thunder bark. Oweeeoooo, I don’t like that! Buddy, he would hold me when the thunder-talker rode the sky. Buddy! Buddddy!
Plus my stomach is hot and my throat is tight ‘cause I’m that hungry. The others all stay asleep.
Now it’s just water from up above, no more giant barkin’. Maybe it’s not mad anymore, or maybe it’s headed off to punish some other bad dog, ‘cept what dog could be as bad as me?
The boss ain’t asleep. No, and the boss is givin’ me a look I don’t like. I’m gonna roll, he comes to fight me. I’m gonna roll for that tough fella. Lil’ fella. Except, I mean, he comes up to my shoulders, so he ain’t tiny. But he ain’t big. He’s the boss, though, that’s for sure. He can get behind you, come at you outa nowhere, and not many a dog has ever done that to me. I mean, when he got my neck, I did not even come close to being able to stop him.
Now he’s givin’ me a stare.
Kaieee kaieeeaaa!
What does that mean? It’s close, but it ain’t dog. He’s gone stiff legged and I see his hackles. Whatever it is he’s yellin’, I dunno, but dog or not, I sure can tell he’s mad. I’ll roll. Sure, why not? I’m not ready to take another hit from him. I’d rather follow. So here I am, fella, just showin’ my throat and my guts to you again.
Kaieea kaieee!
What is that? I mean, is he mad or sad or what? No dog I knew ever said kaiheho. These are confusing beasts. They feel like dogs, act sort of like us, but they don’t talk dog and they smell just kinda…not.
Well, now he’s settlin’. And the rockin’ sockin’ monster of the sky’s gone off to torment some other mutt.
It gets quiet again. Creatures breathin’, that’s all. Asleep but not asleep. Careful is what they are.
I start to think of home again. Raise my head and smell for Culebra, but I don’t catch a single thread of her scent.
I’m more lost than ever, that’s the truth of it. Lost and hungry and killed a calf while running with strange beasts.
My heart hurts, because I have betrayed Buddy. You never, not ever, hurt a calf.
I fall asleep, and for a long time I dream about runnin' over hills, and every time I get to the top of one, all I see is a whole bunch more.
I open my eyes ‘cause there is light. Sun comin’ up. I get up and stretch out my haunches.
I am so hungry! I ain’t never been this hungry! I gotta find something to eat. But the others aren’t hungry, they’re fulla calf meat. Maybe I could go back to the calf, find something left. I can smell it, I know how to find it.
Oh, I hurt inside. I hurt outside, too. But I hurt most down inside where there needs to be some food. I remember what we ate and what I want to eat, and, on the wet wind of morning, I smell those cattle and that second calf.
The sun is bright. The grass is waving its heads and where we slept, it is going hhoooaaaa as it stretches itself straight again. In the trees, fat birds flutter and squirrels lounge along the limbs. In the water, tiny fish flicker with the sun. The boss keeps eyein’ me. The boss don’t like me. The boss took my roll, but he still wants my life. If he attacks me, there will be no more rolling. It will be a fight to the death.
I gotta eat. So I’m gonna take that run, and I take off. Behind me, I hear that kaie kaieee stuff again. I am running in the grass, back across the fields in the sun, back to where the cattle are.
I can’t see above the grass, but they’re easy to hear and smell. Nothin’ to it. I smell the dead one, but it’s all bones, no meat left. Bones and the oily smell of flies.
I should not go near those live cattle, not when I am this hungy, but I can’t stop, I am desperate, I need food.
There’s a fence to get under. I dig a little, pull away some soil, and I’m goin’ again, doin’ my long lope, wishin’ my leg didn’t hurt all the time now. It’s worse every time I run.
I want to sleep with my head on Buddy’s feet. I want to be somewhere I can only smell Buddy, ‘cause he is all I want to smell. But I gotta live and to do that I gotta eat.
I smell a truck, its hot metal and the men in it, covered with salt and water. The smell is gettin’ stronger fast.
But there the cattle are, just ahead, a bunch of ‘em! Oh, my, and there is that other tender calf. I could take that calf, I could do it. I could have all that good meat for me! Only, those men coming, they will not let me. They will say no.
‘Cept, the creatures, they’re gonna take this calf tonight when the men are gone. Maybe if I sneak in nobody, not the creatures, not the men, will see me.
“Over there, see the way the grass is movin’?”
“I see it.”
People voices! Buddy?
“That’s just a single coyote, huntin’ alone?”
“Coyote don’t hunt alone.”
“Man, I think that’s a coydog, not a coyote, and if it is, we ain’t gonna get ‘im. They don’t let themselves get shot.”
“And they don’t hunt alone, either, and not durin’ the day.”
“So what the hell is that?”
“Jesus saves, look at that thing! That’s one a them dingo mixes gone cur. That’s what got your calf, for sure, and you gotta know it’s back after t’other’n.”
Hey, people! Heyhey! I’m Bob! Hi, oh, hi!
“Get your scope on ‘im, we’ll both fire at once.”
Heyhey! Heyhey! I’ll take care of your cattle! I’ll work for food! Hehey! I’m Bob, I’ll work for food!
I hear a bang, but what’re they huntin’ for? Hi, oh, hi, I’m Bob the dog and I am good with cattle, real good!
‘Cept I’m a bad dog.
A bang and the air hisses and smells peppery. Another bang and another hiss.
No question: they’re huntin’ me.