Littlehead

 

This morning, I lay still in the anesthetized cocoon of the MRI machine, the Chopin blurring through my too-tight headphones & coupling with the erratic beeps & grinding noises. I thought about Littlehead, our magnificent & beloved dog, whom we had to put down yesterday at home after her body shifted & accrued mass.

To call her a dog is a misnomer, in the way that calling someone you love a human feels inadequate. She was part dryad, part spirit, many parts wild creature. She was fearless & tender & loving & fierce & reserved her excitability for when she was in front of a dog team or roaming the country unheeded & unbeholden.

We once watched her permit a fox to walk by with a moose bone stolen from our dog yard. She was beneficent in her kingdoms.

We’re 93% certain that she caroused with a coyote named Gary. She was very likely in prolonged & perhaps annual conversation with any & all migrating creatures along the Panguingue Creek corridor, be they crane or porcupine or grizzly bear.

She patrolled Regulus end to end, not to the effect of keeping it safe or acting upon her impulses, but just sort of thoughtfully & at a curious remove. She was like a naturalist who doesn’t need to slink around slyly, being of the place already & of the appropriate species.

She sometimes nipped people in the ass as they approached our cabin, & then afterwards she ended up almost always putting her paw out to them to prod them into loving on her.

If she didn’t like you, you were probably a piece of shit.

She was so, so patient. Ada lay upon her dog bed for the better part of two years, showing her books, sharing snacks, consulting her for advice on her dance moves. Littlehead always met her with care & an intrepid equanimity.

She saved Kristin’s ass on Eagle Summit. She saved my ass on the Thorofare River. She broke trail across a good swath of this enormous state, gracing her chosen few with bombardments of slim-tongued kisses to their ears & noses.

We put her name on all of our merchandise because she exemplified everything good & great in the scope of mushing. Her oddities & uniqueness were nothing in the face of her drive, her will & her hunger for experience.

I think Narnian creatures are swell, but Littlehead honestly surpassed all of them, & with none of the demonstrative pronouncements of her own value. She just walked the walk, magnificently.

If you met her, you’re lucky. She made you better. If you didn’t, I’m so sorry you won’t have the opportunity, as she was one of the very best creatures ever to roam this fair world.

I will miss her, always.


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