Mammoth has characters

I remember you in that cage with your eight tiny littermates, while Chief was being a jerk, climbing all over the siblings trying to get to me. Your stand-alone timidness also attracted me, so I took the asshole black male and the shy tan female.

I remember you two as little furry rats wrapped in a towel, secure in a backpack for transportation into the backcountry that would be your true home for years to come. You wouldn't eat food for days, while Chief wolfed down his share and more.

Eventually, you came into your own, slyly controlling that bully Chief on occasion, the way females always rule the males without the males even aware of the psychology in place. You two were a tuned "rescue-machine" that always amazed me with your keen backcountry senses.

You stood by while Chief solely got his "Hero-Dog" award, missing out on its co-ownership because you faithfully chose to stick by me, your Pa, always the "good dog."

I remember how the coyotes attacked you two daily, trying to establish their territory, and your eventual reaction upon maturity winning out with your territorial imperative there in that backcountry scenario.

You, and only you, knew the eventual fate of the runaway Chief, but you came back to me, while he did not.

You were my sole pal in the last four years since Chief left us, and I miss you so much right now.

I weep as I wash your favorite doggie blankets and empty your backpack of its biscuits, just as yesterday I wept as I buried you in that hallowed ground in the woods that you were so fond of.

What the hell was I thinking to take you down to that scorching desolate desert just to listen to half-shitty bands playing their electronica for mindless idiots thinking it a groovy experience? I'm so sorry girl for exposing you to that arid, 104-degree devil-hole, fit only for scorpions, where you could not breathe after not being below 7,000 feet much in your life.

I will miss you, Dakota, and savor your photos and memories forever.

I love you.

Picture of Dakota | Picture of Bob