THE CUR: The Cur
I remember exactly the day she showed up. She was hangin' around the church, then kinda worked her way down the street towards the saloon. She checked out all the building fronts along the way, but didn't stop til she got down by where we sit front of the saloon. She kinda cocked her head and sized me up, then went on her way. I didn't give it much thought at the time, 'cept to wonder whose she was, but she was an ugly cur, and didn't make me no never mind. I remember the day, though, 'cause it was one'a them real pretty days when you don't do anythin' but think 'bout what a great day to get things done and ends up I never got nuthin done that day.
Josiah mentioned her 'bout a week later, said some dog showed up that morning out back of the church. He tried to get close to her, but she was goosy and took off. So he put some scraps out for her and talked 'bout her that night over a beer.
Some time after that, the rest of them boys started callin' her my dog. They was feedin' me grief over that mangy half breed 'cause they had nuthin' better to do. It was JD and Buck took to feedin' her good food, sayin'somebody'd like that dog if they cleaned her up a bit.
It was true she seemed to hang around the same places I did. I didn't give her nuthin', though. Maybe a bit'a hoof trimmin's when I was workin' horses, that's all. And I never did pet her. Like I said, she was goosy. I reckon one of us woulda shot her, 'cept she never got far'nough from town so's we coulda shot her without some woman in town getting all upset. Billy wanted her for his, but Mary wouldn't have it. It didn't make no never mind, 'cause she wasn't nobody's dog, just a half wild cur lookin' for a place to lay up a bit.
I thought we were rid of her when she followed me and JD out to Nettie's. We'd finished fixin' the barn roof, and me and him were goofin' off when he asked me to teach him to rope. Well, after a bit, he'd caught 3-4 fence posts right off and was feelin' pretty flush, and I told him to rope that rooster 'a Nettie's. Who'da thought that kid could rope a rooster? Then that bird got all sorta upset, squalkin' and fightin' that hemp, and the dog jumped into the fray, and next thing we know, that bird's neck is broke. Hell, Nettie come out ready to shoot somethin', so I blamed the dog, and she got all soft then and told me not to bring my dog to her place anymore and to pluck that rooster for soup. I told her it weren't my dog but she wasn't listenin'. I think that was 'bout the only time she left town.
She was just a plain brown dog, though Josiah called her copper, Chris and Buck said she was sorrel, Nathan said rust, JD said cinnamon and Ezra, in his high falutin' way, said she was mahogany but we oughta call her Ginger. Shit, a dog like that needs a pretty name like Ginger like she needs another ear that flops down and covers her other eye. Skinny flea bag like that and they're all thinkin' up fancy breeds'a dogs tryin to figure out what she is. Half coyote, half badger looked like to me.
Josiah said mebbe she was a fallen angel, but I think she was just a dog got left behind when somebody took off on her. Or mebbe who ever owned her got killed, pretty hard for a dog to follow somebody who's dead. She spent the whole summer hangin' around, never really bothered nobody, 'cept for bein ugly, when that stupid dog got kilt.
There was a bunch'a cowpokes come in, all boogered up with their trail pay, and Ezra fleeced 'em pretty good. He says he didn't cheat, and I believe him. Don't think he had to, these fellers were dumber'n mud. They had real poor attitudes, like Ezra said, and they come back to bust up our town. So we had a bit'a gunplay, and next thing I know I'm layin' there in the dirt, wonderin' what exactly happened, lookin' this mangy, ugly, brown cur dog in the eye, and she's whinin' at me. I told her to git, but she just kept right on lickin' my face with that rotten dirty breath that was's bad as TopHat Bob's. My arm was stuck under me, or I'd smacked her right off'a me. I was kinda layin' behind the livery door, so's the other boys couldn't see me, tryin like anythin' to get my damn arm out from under me so's I could get up and shoot somebody, and she was right there in my way, just wouldn't move. Woulda been easier if a horse had just fell on me than to get that damn dog off'a me. Then, finally, I'm getting damn cold and my arm just plain went to sleep and that dog lays down there and she's warm. So I closed my eyes, just for a second, and then I hear her growlin' like all get out, and there's this fella, one'a those cowboys, standin' over me, and I'm just about to get my gun out and she takes him, bitin' him hard on the arm and just tearin' into him, and then Larabee's there and there's more shootin' and I don't remember after that. But when I woke up a day later, JD tells me she got shot so now she's gone.
And it don't really matter anyway, 'cause she was just a mangy brown cur dog, not like she was my dog. Just some hound from hell. Fallen angel, just like Josiah said. Just like the rest of us.
END
Next story: Vin's Dog