- Awhile ago, I wrote about my late and much missed canine
friend the Navajo Dog. Since then, I've been inundated with questions about
how this magical creature came into my life.
-
- So:
-
- It was the summer of 1989. I was returning from a vacation
in the Southwest with two of my children, Sabrina (8 at the time) and Wes
(then almost 4). As we drove past Gallup, N.M., an unexpected thought flashed
into my mind. Not being one to ignore unexpected thoughts, I immediately
reported it to the rest of the gang.
-
- "Sorry, kids, but it's time for a little detour.
We've got to go to Monument Valley."
-
- "I know," Sabrina said, surprising me. "Our
dog's waiting for us there."
-
- And that was exactly what I'd been thinking, for no reason
whatsoever. That we had a dog, and that the dog was up in Monument Valley,
on the Utah/Arizona border. Where it was - yes, indeed - waiting for us.
-
- We took the highway to Kayenta, Ariz., a small Navajo
town not unlike Paradise (except that I hadn't discovered Paradise yet).
Kayenta is the doorway to Monument Valley, an area of uniquely beautiful
rock formations.
-
- If you've seen any of the old Westerns John Ford made
starring John Wayne, you've seen Monument Valley. If you haven't seen them
- well, either way you might think about spending a very special week there,
as the kids and I had only a year before.
-
- After a couple of hours of hard driving, the kids and
I pulled into the parking lot of Monument Valley Tribal Park. I opened
my door and, immediately, a small red and white puppy jumped into the car.
-
- The puppy leapt onto Sabrina's lap and started licking
her. Sabrina squealed with delight.
-
- "It's our dog!" Wes shouted. "Our dog's
here!" He reached out and grabbed her. The puppy obliged by licking
him too.
-
- All I could do was stare. "This can't really be
our dog," I said. "It must belong to somebody around here."
-
- The kids' faces grew long. "Daddy! No!"
-
- "All right. Let me check on this."
-
- Leaving Sabrina, Wes and the red and white puppy in the
car, I went into the visitors center. A park ranger smiled at me. "Can
I help you?"
-
- "A puppy just jumped into our car," I said.
"And the kids and I are wondering - "
-
- That was as far as I got. "The red and white puppy?"
she said. "Her mother's been chasing sheep. Our people here make their
living raising sheep. We're shooting the mother and her whole litter tomorrow.
If you want to take that puppy, you'll be saving her."
-
- I went back out to the car. The puppy was sitting between
Sabrina and Wes, chewing contentedly on Cheetos.
-
- "She's our dog, all right," I said.
-
- Sabrina laughed and hugged the puppy. Wes got that suspicious
look he got too often in his young life. "If she's our dog, what's
her name?" he said.
-
- "A reasonable question. Let's find out."
-
- We drove to the nearest motel and checked in for the
night. Then went to the little shopping center (so small it wasn't even
a mini-mall) and bought a leash, a couple of bowls and some dog food at
the market.
-
- Our next stop was the laundromat. The last time we were
in the area, I'd learned that the laundromat was the closest thing to a
local gathering place. My plan was to bring the puppy in and ask people
for a good Navajo name for her, since she was, after all, a Navajo Dog.
-
- I expected a variety of suggestions, but although we
got a dozen answers, they were all the same. The men and women of Monument
Valley took one look at the puppy's red-masked face and all said the unspellable
Navajo word for "bandit."
-
- She wasn't a bandit, though, and the kids didn't think
the name fitted. We went back to the motel with an unnamed Navajo Dog.
-
- That night I had a dream. I dreamed that the puppy walked
up to me. Sat down. And said, very clearly: "I am Dineh."
-
- In the morning, I sat down with the kids and the dog.
"I know the dog's name," I said.
-
- "Me too," said Sabrina. "I had a dream
- "
-
- "Me, three -" said Wes.
-
- And, together, "It's Dineh."
-
- The Navajo word for - Navajo.
-
- Which none of us learned until later.
-
- But there she was, for then and forever after:
-
- Dineh. Our Navajo Dog.
-
- Copyright C 2008 by Larry Brody. All rights reserved.
-
- Author Larry Brody's weekly column, LIVE! FROM PARADISE!
appears on his website, www.larrybrody.com. He has written thousands of
hours of network television, and is the author of "Television Writing
from the Inside Out" and "Turning Points in Television."
Brody is Creative Director of The Cloud Creek Institute for the Arts, the
world's first in-residence media colony. More about his activities can
be seen on www.tvwriter.com and www.cloudcreek.org. He welcomes your comments
and feedback at <mailto:LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org>LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org.
Brody, his wife and their dogs, cats, horses and chickens live in Marion
County, Arkansas. The other residents of the mythical town of Paradise
reside in his imagination.
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