Tails on the Hill: Stories about a Family and Its Dogs

WOW

39 W hite on White doesn’t sound colorful for a dog’s name, but put it into initials and it sounds more exciting-like WOW! Well, that was Daddy’s name for the newest member of the Hill Gang. Daddy’s names for dogs were kinda dumb. But WOW it was. At least we didn’t have to holler, “Here, White on White!” when we called him. WOW wandered into the pecan orchard when Daddy was standing in the bed of the pickup harvesting the new crop of pecans. If we didn’t get to the pecans before they fell out of the hulls, we didn’t get any because as soon as they hit the ground the rats had their own harvest, and we were without pecans for the next year. Daddy was shaking a limb, trying to get a cluster to fall, when he said he heard a “Hhh-Ruumphh.” He looked down and saw a saucy little dog standing with his legs spread out and his tail curled over his back. With big brown eyes bugging out at him it WOW 40Tails on the Hill was like he was saying, “Here I am and aren’t you lucky to have me here inviting myself to this auspicious occasion because I’m a pretty auspicious guy.” Daddy laughed and said he guessed that the white-on-white dog thought his presence made the occasion auspicious because there’s certainly nothing auspicious about picking pecans in the bed of a pickup. That was a day to remember because not only did we meet WOW for the first time, but that’s when I learned what “auspicious” meant, too. Somehow, from that time on those two words always seemed to run together-WOWAUSPICIOUS -WOW. Usually Daddy let me have all the dogs on the Hill, but WOW became his dog. Actually, WOW looked like he was glued to Daddy’s right heel. His steps were as big as Daddy’s. Sometimes he’d prance ahead of him, turn around and say, “This is the way to go, Dummy. How’d you ever manage before I came along?” Then he’d strut ahead as if he’d been there a dozen times before when really he hadn’t. He was such a “know-it-all.” Naturally, some of the older dogs got tired of WOW’s bragging and cockiness. Ug and Thug, Dubie’s two sons, snarled and growled at WOW every time they thought no one was looking. WOW never missed a chance to show them how “auspicious” he was. He would bare his teeth, lay his ears flat, and growl and snarl right back at them, always keeping his eyes rolled at Daddy just to make sure Daddy could see how brave and tough he could be. Besides that, I think he felt safer knowing that help wasn’t far away, just in case. WOW would never admit that though. Even if he had just been fed, sometimes he’d march over, take a lump of food out of their bowls, waller and crunch it around in his mouth, gulp, waggle his curled up tail in their faces and swagger off like John Wayne. His 41 WOW nose was so high in the air he didn’t see those two black dogs bare their fangs and slowly whip their tails back and forth like knife blades-back and forth, back and forth. Daddy talked to WOW about being so cocky and told him those two guys were gonna get even with him some day if he didn’t watch out. WOW would always grin, lick his chops, and talk about other things more important. Daddy never left home without putting WOW in the dog yard and making sure the gate was locked. The two brothers would bring up all kinds of little animals, sometimes dead, sometimes dying, toss them around on the grass outside the fence, play with them a while, and then eat them right in front of WOW. WOW went crazy, barking, hollering, climbing, and clawing, trying to get over the fence. He forgot all about being cool or cocky-or auspicious. All he could think about was getting out of that dog yard. We went to Boyd to spend the day with Grandmother and didn’t head for home until after dark. I was sound asleep in the back seat when I heard...