RES DOGS SYNOPSIS

RES DOGS: The Life and Times of Stumpi de Chelly (pronounced, “de-shay”) is an anecdote about stray res dogs running loose on the Navajo Reservation. In this novel, I’m portraying the picturesque Canyon de Shelly National Monument near Chinle, Arizona. Inspired by a somewhat silly looking res dog that once befriended me and my girlfriend who bivouacked at the campground, this part of the story is true while the novel’s narrative is fictitious. Nevertheless, the facts of res dogs are all true and dramatic. Thus, the rigors these peerless campsite beggars face every day. Most of the dogs were also surreptitiously dropped off at the reservation by their thoughtless and uncaring owners. Thus, abandoned, which, in itself, is entirely a scandalous and inhumane act people wantonly do on a year-round basis. Since there are no spaying and neutering clinics on reservations, the primary problem based on the res dog growing census is exacerbated when the females come into season. From about six months old through the rest of her life, a female dog will experience estrus (aka as “heat”) roughly every six months. This benchmark denotes the time when the female is receptive to mating.

All the dogs in this tale about tails, both their names and their typical antics that some dogs prefer calling stratagems with a distinct purpose in mind––getting a handout––are drawn from dogs and names I have known or were owned by other people that I knew. For the sake of added drama and comic relief, I embellished some of the antics because the dogs said that I should. (That said, you might say the dogs, themselves, channeled some of their stories, and who am I to question what they did or didn’t do given these, at times, amusing campsite forays?) I should also say that I have traveled extensively throughout Arizona’s Navajo Reservation and got to meet many of the dogs, as well as witnessing some of the preferences and scheming each employed when mooching for food. Moreover, I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly given the daily grind each faces, especially during the off-season when tourists are damn seldom (as in seen) and the weather is worse. 

This novel, therefore, is a combination of hard facts, as truth, and a fictional depiction, except I decided to let the dogs do most of the talking. In other words, it's these lovable and pitiful dogs telling what they know and experience from their perspective, which, admittedly, requires a poetic license. For instance, Stumpi de Chelly is, manifestly, the featured celebrity throughout the story. On the other paw, all the res dogs are celebrities in their own right. In fact, some of them are downright characters. That said, you won’t find a nicer and better behaved dog on the planet––res dog dispositions are that sweet and their natures are that gentle. Another admirable trait about res dogs is that they live entirely in the moment. Accordingly, their mooching sessions visiting one campsite after the other denote an all or none proposition. In short, they’re visiting campsites to get handouts from the campers. Thus, the tourists who visit the reservations and the sprawling Navajo Reservation’s canyon and scenic desert environs. Consequently, it's these tourists who mostly provide the only meals for the four-legged mendicants with tails and smiles; at least most of the dogs seem to smile and slobber when they invite themselves into a campsite looking for a handout from a friendly and willing camper. 

Then again, and that positive and hopeful outcome aside, many dogs are malnourished, underweight, and underfed. Naturally, sometimes the campers are not so generous as the dogs hope or expect, and so, the dogs mosey on until they find a magnanimous camper who will share food scraps with the nearly constant stream of beggars looking for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Sadly, sometimes the dogs go without food for a day or two or three. Thus, where is the humanity when campers ignore the plight of res dogs? In fact, during the off-tourist season, some dogs may go a week or more without anything to eat. No sense my saying what ultimately happens to these victims of prolonged starvation.

On this note, many res dogs are also not in optimum health. Most suffer from borderline malnutrition, as well as a host of other common ailments (i.e., mange, eyesores, worms, and on and on goes the long list goes). In fact, the chancy life of res dogs is so precarious, the average lifespan is somewhere between three and four years. It’s no wonder these dogs make the best of every day of their relatively short lives. Despite their afflictions and how hungry they are most of the time, somehow their dispositions never spoil, and, therefore, they never tire of mooching. They must also endure temperature extremes ranging from simmering in the canyon environs during the warm and hotter months, and near freezing or below freezing during the winter. Then there are rain and snow and flash flooding conditions that take a toll on some of the dogs. Surprisingly, no res dog ever complains. Stumpi de Chelly, especially, has this commendable trait. He’s also considered the wisest dog in the community though he, of course, would be too modest to agree with such an accolade. Nevertheless, Stumpi, as he prefers being addressed by his res dog pals, is also gifted with what can only be described as a sixth sense. Moreover, he appears to be in touch with some rather abstruse dogosophy, as I label it, which suggests something metaphysical, yet whatever it is or isn’t can’t readily or rationally be explained in conventional or unconventional terms. Suffice it to say, Stumpi de Chelly enjoys talking about the so-called Canis Universale to any res dog who will listen. Then again, hardly any of them ever comprehend what Stumpi imparts when he talks about the seeming abstract notions that pass through his thinker––what we humans refer to as our minds.

Res Dogs is an engaging and enjoyable novel that introduces readers, firsthand, to the world’s greatest canines, bar none. Of course, the reader will have to confirm this when perusing this literary take on the life and times of res dogs.

 <<<256 pages 8.5 X 11 format>>>