The Dogs in Gossi

The Dogs in Gossi

One of the first evenings in Gossi Bess and I went for a walk around the gardens. We shared the sandy trail for some time with a young adolescent carrying a sharpened stick - about spear length. So after a little while… up ahead on the trail there was a collarless dog frozen in motion – staring us down. The dog dropped it’s head and walked off as if ashamed… but now it seems to me more likely that he was really strategically removing herself from potential danger. Because… spontaneously… the dog accelerated into a run and tried passing us as far from our path as possible… the dog moved pass us hugging the thorny garden fence on our left, about 20 feet away… still accelerating into what back home in BA we might call a Bookit!!! And to Bess’ and my surprise, the young Gossi boy threw his spear at the dog – as if to kill or seriously wound… Bess then screamed out “War Ahooskat!!! Which means… in Tamashek… Not Beautiful… and life in Gossi went on as if nothing had changed. And ten seconds after the boy walked over to the spot where the missed spear was… some very little children appeared on the horizon of our path with a beautiful puppy. Bess then practiced the best of her Tamashek with the children and this lead to an after dinner discussion of “Maybe we should buy a puppy” - for literally 1 USD. So what for a man like me to do? Well – I’ll tell you what happened… around 3 weeks later… the day before Bess’ birthday… a time when I still didn’t have a gift to give her… which was also a time after three nights of discussing a puppy – a discussion which resulted with me coming to terms with my inner anger – so anyway… on the day before Bess’ birthday… Jared was way over on the far side of the garden with a donkey cart and two small boys, picking up a small load of tree posts and saplings for a shade hanger improvement… when I couldn’t help but notice a small puppy tied to a post. What particularly struck me about this puppy was how many ticks were covering the dogs the body… and looking at the poor helpless thing after three weeks of observing the way people and dogs interact in Gossi… I decided absolutely, that I knew a woman and a place where the dog might find a healthier, more loving environment. But what I didn’t know… was if the family who owned the dog would want to part with their puppy. So in my best Tamashek… I addressed the family. Now take one minute to understand this family… they live in a small domed stick hut in the woods… most of everything they owned was right out of the woods… but for some odd reason they were very enthusiastic about receiving my money… so when I asked the chief woman of the family if she would sell the dog, she laughed as if it was the most ridiculous thing she ever heard. And when she finally realized that I was serious, she looked at me as if confused… but because I was very enthusiastic about buying the dog… she ordered one of the larger children to go fetch the boy who had claim on the puppy I wanted. Fifteen minutes later… this young spitfire Tamashek boy comes crashing out of the woods and runs directly over to meet me, and says in his best Tamashek “Nakk Arher Iyyan Efad” which means “I want ten USD”. And I, still in squat position stroking the puppy softly and encouragingly with a crowd of the boy’s family and neighbors around me… looked at the boy and wanted to give him just that… but because it was more money than the donkey cart and lumber added up, I said in my best Tamashek… “Albarka” which means “Lower Your Price”… and the boy said very hopefully… “Iyyan Timad or 2 USD” and I said… “Ajim Nakk ad-akfar Assin Timad i- annan-nak i- eddi” which means… How about I give 4 U.S. dollars to your mother”… and the boy said “Imminda” which means Finished. CHEWY… If you had seen the initial smile on Bess’ face when she realized that the puppy arriving on her doorstep with the children and my lumber – was hers to help, train, and love – you would know… as I have come to know… that purchasing the dog was a good thing… for Bess… she took immediate compassion on the dog she named Chewy, which she named just as immediately as she took compassion. So together… Bess and I took turns holding Chewy down… and pulling off ticks… in which Chewy cried the entire time we took some fifteen ticks out of a single ear… and so… do you think we lived happily ever after… well… I can tell you a few things… since Chewy arrived at our home… we’ve learned that the puppy’s name given by Bess is a little too fitting for comfort… chewy not only chews everything… but she has a very bad biting problem… very bad biting problem… you see… dogs in Gossi are not like domestic dogs in the U.S.A. - they are more like the dogs Tom Brown describes in his book The Tracker. My host father, Albanna, has a dog… it lies everyday in the same lonely shady spot in the far corner of the greater concession, if anyone comes close the dog with threaten with a growl and getting too close means a definite bite. At night I lie in bed watching the stars in my concession and often find myself listening to the dogs fighting and forming packs in the gardens… there are many dogs in Gossi, and they all seem to be wild… children raise puppies here on a leash at all times, often tied to the post, the children hit the puppies, and even throw rocks at them, the puppies lean to lash out… to bite bite bite… and eventually they are let loose to be wild…. Once an elderly man in fully Toureg dress came into the concession of Bess and I to see if I could help fix his cell phone… while sitting in my shade hanger… chewy decided to come meet the stranger… the second Chewy appeared the man’s reaction was to kick Chewy away… dogs are indeed treated differenlyt here in Gossi… Bess and I have not given up yet… we took Chewy for a two and half hour bus ride to Gao… Chewy threw up on me three times in the back of the bus… here in Gao… Chewy is learning a lot and receiving a lot of love from the all the PCVs here… James the guy who lives at the house in Gao, has a nice mature female dog named Regan… and together… we are guiding Chewy toward a path more harmonious with human life – without lashing out. My fear is this… sometimes I see in Chewy what Tom Brown saw in the wild dogs of the Pine Barrens… they just lash out… wild… and hopeless… but Bess and I are willing to parent the dog through childhood and then see if the dogs wants to share two years together…the future for this pup is indeed unknown… but if the dog is truly wild… we won’t stop it from being free… already I’ve been forced to kick chewy out of our concession for causing too much havock… but minuets latter old little Chewy came back in the home through the wash hole, with a loud Yelp because Chewy was getting hit by one of the rocks being thrown by the many street children pursuing her.

**** O.K. All of the above was written about four weeks ago… it is now Thanksgiving and so here is an update on the dog situation… Chewy is in Gao with us for a second time… Chewy and I got a ride here about a week ago with Bess’ APCD (Head of Water Sanitation in Peace Corps Mali) in a Peace Corps Vehicle… Chewy only threw up once in the Peace Corps Vehicle but unfortunately pooped three times… we didn’t know when the vehicle was coming through and it just happened to come after Chewy’s meal… In Gossi… Chewy still acts like a puppy with reckless abandon… not so much wild and dangerous… but more understandable puppy behavior… the children and even adults are of course still afraid of her… and she causes problems for Bess and I such as digging up our tomato garden… chasing the neighbor’s chickens… and knocking over little children at the well… too much havoc for now… so Chewy is in Gao for a semi-permanent residence, through puppyhood, and will mello out living here with Regan and will hopefully return to Gao in two months… this will give Bess and I time to build fences around our gardens and time for Chewy to develop without the influence of Gossi.

So… how are the Dog’s in Gossi… about a two weeks ago I was walking through Gossi alone at about ten-o-clock at night… as a truck passed me on the sandy road… I saw a pack of 20 to 30 dogs gathered on the road up ahead… the dogs were barking… growling… lashing out… and fighting with one another… the truck shed just enough light on the situation for me to grow incredibly scared… and in a flash of a second… the light of the truck was gone and I was left in the dark in the sounds of the angry Dog Mob… the Mob dissipated a little from the disturbance of the truck so that they held both side of the road I was walking down… which meant I was walking between the Mob… I could hear the Alpha Dog barking at me from the left side of the road…a strong warning for sure and I was not knowing whether to call the bluff or not… walking admits the mob of barking dogs I started rehearsing in my head what I would do if 20 dogs attacked me… I started picturing myself whipping out Jet Li moves… but then I decided to just clear my mind all together… and walk on… fortunately the dogs only made some threatening charges that stopped about ten feet from my line… it was my first glimpse of the wild dogs I had been listening to night after night… indeed… they look as scary as they sound… Oh well… I guess Chewy is in line for a different fate… attached is a picture I took of Chewy in the Peace Corps Vehicle… about five minuets before she threw up and started pooping…