Dogs of Empire

Buford was my dad’s dog. I think he was a stray or perhaps a dog that someone my dad knew didn’t want anymore. In any case Buford was a german shorthair-looking dog. Tall, lanky with big ears, brown and white coat and soft brown eyes. He was a standoffish dog in the way dogs can be when they have seen the full range of human behavior and decide that distance is best. He was a fine enough dog with the family though protective of his territory in a way that made us a little wary of him. 

Once a stranger drove onto my dad’s 10 acres and Buford was out loose and met the man at the car door. The man got out of the car to speak to my dad and Buford bit him on the ass. Just a nip and the guy jumps back in the car and yells “You dog just bit me!” My dad replied you shouldn’t have gotten out of the car!” 

This was Buford, different, not warm but probably not dangerous. 

The thing about Buford was he had secrets. This wasn’t surprising as he seemed inscrutable in a way most dogs are not. I know this because my dad told me a story about Buford. 

They were having their morning walk up in the Forest Service land behind my dad’s house. As always happened Buford disappeared into the woods and my dad continued his morning amble. 

After some time my dad walked over a rise and looked into the little hollow below and there was Buford and with him were three or four coyotes. My dad would have been alarmed except that they were all playing and jumping about, paws out, heads down, like dogs always play. My dad had never seen Buford being playful but there he was. 

At some point one of the coyotes looked up to my dad and then they all ran off leaving Buford and my dad alone. Was this his normal routine? Who could know?

The other day we visited the Empire Ranch in Southern Arizona near the small town of Sonoita not far south of Tucson. A cattle ranch homesteaded in 1876 it passed through a few families until in 1969 it was bought by a real estate developer to build a housing development, followed by a mining company that wanted its water for a project and finally it was purchased by the BLM. They have preserved the old ranch homestead and have documented the history. 

Ecologically the area has some ephemeral streams and riparian areas and also some cienegas or desert wetlands. 

The land here is soft rolling hills carpeted in sparse blond grass, studded with mesquite trees, yucca, and prickly pear cactus. In the bottoms of the washes or arroyos are mesquite bosques or woods. Here the mesquite get quite sizable where water is more plentiful. In the stream bottoms are great colonnades of Fremont Cottonwood. Cottonwood a frequent sight in the arid southwest they always tell of the presence of reliable water even if only just underground. Here there are some of the largest examples of cottonwood I have ever seen. 

We decided to spend the day driving and walking around this unique area until we noticed a couple of black dogs on the dirt backroads. At first we thought they must belong to one of the many camps in the area. But in driving back again we found the same two and they had been joined by a third dog who was black and brown colored. 

Another couple were trying figure what the new dog was up to and we stayed with the first two and thought we should try and give them some water. 

Alas they showed little interest in water which was not a surprise as recent rains had left many large puddles around. 

The dogs were all without collars and were all comfortable with each other. They were however very wary of us. They were clean and in apparent good health and may not have been out there very long. Without collars, we surmised they may have been abandoned here by their owners. 

We had some dog kibble and tried feeding them and discovered they were ravenous. They waited until we would back away from the bowl but then ate greedily. We began to look up and call a local animal control facility that might come and rescue them. The other couple tried as well. We first tried Santa Cruz county but learned we were not in the county. So we tried Pima county and eventually talked to someone who said that they only had three officers to chase after dogs in the whole county and since they were healthy and not causing trouble chances were we would not get a call back. 

At some point a car drove by us and the dogs went chasing and barking after the car. Perhaps because it looked like their owner’s car. After exhausting all options of getting them picked up my wife and decided to go look for them and trying to catch them. 

We reorganized the back of the truck to make some room and drove down the road hoping to find them. Luckily enough it didn’t take long. 

Then begain the process of gaining their trust using food, quiet words, and encouragement. The black and brown one quickly came to trust me and I was able to pet it. We tried putting food in the bed of the truck and the black and brown and the black and white one would jump up but then jump off if we moved too close. The pure black one was a very different story however. 

Soon I had the black and brown one accepting putting a rope around its neck and so we had caught the first one. She was very kind and sweet. 

I was trying to judge what to do next. I managed to get the black and white to let me pet it briefly several times. The pure black stayed well back and its eyes made me think she might be a fear biter.

I decided I would try and grab the black and white by the scruff of the neck and work a rope over its head. I managed to grab her but she twisted away before I could get a rope on her. She now turned more wary. especially of my left hand the one I used to grab her. I managed another chance with my right hand but again failed to get a noose over her neck before she escaped. It was looking more desperate given what we had to work with. 

We knew from our earlier interactions that the Pima County animal center would close at 6:30PM so we decided we should take the black and brown we had caught on the two hour trip to get it to the dog shelter. It was almost 2 hours before we got there 30 minutes before closing. I filled out the questionaire, showed some ID then brought the dog in. We had named her Lucy because she was out loose and we thought that better than Lefty as a name. 

She was so sweet in the waiting room. Sitting close to me and accepting my pats and attention. For a dog I had known a few scarce hours I was surpised how choked up I was turning her over. I was reassured that the facility looked very good and was told it was a no-kill shelter and that she would be pretty easy to place with someone. She would make a great dog for someone. 

As we drove back to our campsite we made plans to come back the next day to find the other two and try again. 

Alas we returned and despite hunting most of the afternoon we came to understand they could not be found. The area is vast and we can only hope someone else found them or they found someone or perhaps like Buford they were adopted by the coyotes.