Chapter 6

Summer 1993

Summer meant no official school, so I dragged all five of us up to the Big Wind Reservation. Mostly it was for the kids to see their great-grandpa, two grandpas, and grandma – Shoshone and otherwise. They stumbled at first with their rudimentary Shoshone, but within a few weeks, they were chattering like magpies with Dark Wolf, Crying Wolf, and Soon Maritsuki.

Finally they had someone to talk to in Japanese. When Jimmy slipped and mentally called Maritsuki, they now could talk in four ways: English, Shoshone, Japanese, and mentally. Grandpa Soon shot me a grin and continued to chat with them. He even began teaching them some basic martial arts moves. Seven-year-olds could barely run in a straight line, but they had fun doing it. They were having more fun than a puppy with two tails.

We took off on a ‘secret mission.’ I had an ulterior motive. I introduced them to Antonia Sky Lark. She took care of Dark Wolf as an unofficial housekeeper and official raiser of Wokitas. She had another set of puppies for us. She had named them:

Kiche – sky spirit – Male
Hosa – little raven – Female
Matto – brave warrior – Male
Dyani – as fast as a deer – Female
Chenoa – white dove – Female

They were about six months old, and Toni was nearly done teaching them the basic commands. “This will be Shen’s last litter. She’s getting quite old. She’s already outlived her brother by almost a decade. I’m hoping that Chenoa will take her place. She the biggest female pup I’ve ever seen. Probably means she got the most wolf blood in her ... James, pick two of the others, they will be yours. Alex will get the other two.”

The kids went nuts. They dove into the pile of pups and started to play with them.

I sent Shen a message, and I included Alex and Jimmy, ’Greetings, Shen, old friend. These are my pups, Alex is the female and James is the male. Say hello, Alex and James.’

Alex and James sent their messages, and then came over to cuddle with the old lady. Alex called me, ’Mom, Shen is hurting in her back legs.’

’How are things with you, Shen? My girl pup says you are hurting in your back legs.’ I scanned her, and indeed, there was a series of tumors along the lower end of her spine.

’Greetings, James and Alex. And to you, Talks-to-wolves. My days are few, now. But I am proud to have nursed so many pups, and so I am ready to go. I will not see another moon.’ Shen sent me.

I called Jimmy and Alex. ’Come silently with me, kids, and watch. I’m going to try and make Shen more comfortable. She is very old, now. Her time with humans is growing small. Soon she will be with the Great Spirits. We will miss her, but she will be going where she’ll be better.’

When I felt the kids watching, I sent to Shen, ’Mother-of-wolves, I will try to ease your pain. Know that we love you as we love all your pups.’

I saw the pain impulses in her brain. They appeared to me as a continual dull red. ’Kids, the pain comes into the brain here, in the brain stem. I don’t know a lot about a dog’s brain, but I’ll bet it’s very close to how a human brain works. If you ever need to deal with pain for yourself or others, look first in this area.

’Now, trace the nerves back into the spine. Careful not to touch anything. The spine is very complicated and too many nerves that do too many different things seem intertwined. But you can sense the dull red pulses that come from lower down. See where the nerves branch out to the tumors? We’ll just pinch the nerves off VERY LIGHTLY. Don’t want to interfere with what else those nerves might be doing.

’You have to be very careful with nerves. It’s not like veins or arteries. See? The dull red impulses no longer go up the spine to the brain.’

Alex said, ’Yes, Mom. I can see a lot of detail in the spine cord itself. I’m sure I could do that, if I had to.’

’Me, too,’ said Jimmy. ’Maybe not as good as Alex. She’s like totally amazing with animals.’

To Shen, ’Now, I think, your back legs won’t hurt as much. I hope your days will be easier.’

She stretched out her hind legs. ’Oh. That is much better. I think I will not play with the pups, though.’ And she radiated a peaceful smile.

“Toni,” I said aloud, “I won’t use her name, because she will hear it. But the mother dog will die within a few weeks. There are a series of tumors along her spine. I tried to make her more comfortable. Don’t let the puppies get too rough with her.”

“Yes,” Toni agreed, quietly. “She seems content to lie in the sun and just be. She’s been a good dog...” Shen lifted her head and beat her tail in the grass when she heard ‘good dog.’ “ ... and I’ll miss her a lot.”

“Come on, kids. I’ll show you how to say, ‘Let’s play’ in dog,” I said to them. I got down on all fours and pounded the grass with my hands.

I could hear Shen talking to her pups. ’Don’t hold back. You can play with Talks-to-wolves. She and her pups are special. They can hear us and talk to us.’

The three females were eager and jumped at me. The two males took a second to look at their mother, and only then turned to jump in. Jimmy and Alex adopted the ‘play’ stance and some of the Wokita jumped in at them, too.

We had a grand time for far too long. Finally, we had to break away and go find BearDad and RockDad.

...

When we got to my Whirlwind hacienda in McKesson Creek, I tuned in to Rock and Bear. ’I want to show Jim and Alex how to put people to sleep. It’s a potential defense mechanism and we’re coming up in about six to nine months when we’re going to get a significant invasion. They might need it.

’So, in order to teach that, I need to have a couple of trusting Dad’s to volunteer to be the guinea pigs. I triple promise that I won’t let them harm either of you, you’ll just go to sleep for half an hour to an hour.’