Waking, then falling back to sleep and waking again. I look at Neewa lying, helpless. There is nothing I can do for her but hope she recovers or dies without pain.
Doctor Cuthberson said he thinks Neewa is going to make it.
I repeat his words softly, over and over again. “She’s going to make it. She’s going to make it.”
Finally, I fall asleep at 5:00 AM, only to be awakened by my alarm a half hour later. Dragging myself out of bed, I’m so tired, and so not into going to school.
Wagging her tail, Neewa gets to her feet and wobbles across the rug to her water. I smile guardedly.
“Dad, she’s drinking,” I holler into the kitchen. “She’s drinking.”
He answers, “Great, Christina. Don’t forget to give her a pill.”
Giving her today’s first pill I tell her, “Girl you have to eat and drink today. I’m putting you outside with plenty of food and water.”
Snapping the chain to her collar I tell her, “I’ll be home early, only a half-day of school today, Yea!” She pulls away and licks my chin.
“Oh, Neewa, don’t lick me, yuck!” We look each other in the eyes as the bus pulls up. I turn and run to catch it before it drives away. A cloud of dust billows over her chain as she drags it across the yard till it snaps tight, stopping her. Staring, Neewa watches me disappear down the street. Looking back at her standing there, I sigh. Today she will lay in the shade, drink plenty of water and sleep.
I’m still the new kid at school. I don’t really know anyone. Most of the kids I meet live on the reserve and go to high school far away in Arizona. The kids here figure I’ll only be around a little while anyway, so why bother. I feel the same way. No need to get too friendly, I’ll be leaving soon. It’ll be good-bye to this place.
One of the kids on my bus is a real troublemaker. He came up with this harebrained scheme to steal his own girlfriend’s stereo. Then he tried to frame me. Said his girlfriend saw me looking in her bedroom window. He was going to rob his own girlfriend! She caught him handing her stereo out the window to one of his posse.
I denied it, told them I was at home all night. The cops didn’t believe him.
They were already following him and his buddies for drinking and drugging. He was arrested and I was cleared, but can you imagine the trouble I could have been in?
“Ring, ring, ring,” that’s the final bell. Am I glad this day is over. I’ll jog home instead of waiting around for the bus.
As I run to within a few blocks of home I yell, “Neewa, Neewa!”
She replies, “Woof, Woof,” in a deep-throated bark. As I enter the yard she is waiting for me, staring with tilted head, listening to my footsteps approach, and wagging her tail.
I sprint to her and unclip the chain from her collar, telling her, “Good girl.”
“I’m so glad to see you.” I stroke her neck and shoulder as she leans into my hand, panting.
She circles me, jumping and barking for me to get a toy and play. Then she sprints around the whole yard, as fast as ever.
“Calm down Neewa, take it easy, you have to get better first.”
I look around for the water and food dishes that I put out this morning. All the water is gone. She might have drunk it? Or maybe she knocked it over? One of the bowls of food is empty. That means she ate her first meal in days, unless of course the squirrels got to it first.
I run inside and return with fresh water. She drinks, and looks up at me. Eagerly, she slurps up more and dribbles it all over my shoes. Her black nose is shiny and moist again, not the cracked, dried up, flaking tissue it was the other day. I squeeze her and we both fall over onto the dry dirt that covers most of the yard.
“Yuck! Neewa your breath stinks!” I cry out scrambling to my feet.
Grasping her snout and holding her head steady, I peel back her black lips and peek at her teeth for the first time since her illness. Quickly she shakes loose from my grip.
Goose bumps explode on my arms and legs. Cringing I cry out, “Oh my God, Neewa, your teeth are green, and some are missing.” I stagger away from her feeling like I’m going to throw up.
Just then Dad and Jackie arrive home in a whirlwind of dust, as the van pulls up the alleyway drive.
“How’s Neewa doing?” Dad asks with a genuine look of concern.
“She seems okay, I think she’s doing better,” I mumble.
I get chills thinking about her awful teeth. The first veterinarian warned me about this. He said she would lose some teeth. Thankfully, she hasn’t lost all of them. All of the top and bottom premolars are gone, which are the ones between her canines and molars.
Neewa is panting, gnawing on one of her soup bones while she lies on the only patch of grass in the yard. No problem with her front teeth. She cleaned all the meat off, not a speck is left on that bone.
Crack! She splits the bone wide open and feverishly slurps out all the tasty marrow. I guess there’s nothing wrong with her back teeth either.
Neewa runs to Dad, prances around him, encouraging him to grab one of her toys and play.
Dad smiles, “Hey what is that pink thing hanging out of Neewa’s mouth?”
Embarrassed for Neewa I defend her. “Dad, get over it. That’s her tongue. She lost some teeth, okay, so her tongue hangs out a little.”
“A little,” Dad chuckles, “Her whole tongue is sticking out of her mouth.”
“Stop, you’re making a big thing out of nothing. It’s just the tip that hangs out the side cause her premolars fell out.”
Without those teeth, Neewa’s pink tongue slips out of the toothless gap. This small swatch of pink against her black lips and white face gives her a funny, almost hysterical look.
In fact, Neewa’s tongue has become the family joke. I’m always saying, “Neewa stop sticking your tongue out.” She looks at me and tilts her head to one side. Then I burst out laughing.
Everywhere we go people ask, “What is that in her mouth?” Or someone might inquire, “Is that her tongue hanging out?” “Yes,” we say, and everyone wants to know why.
One time, a kid walked up to her and pulled on it. Surprised, the little girl exclaimed, “Yuck! It’s her tongue?” We all laughed… and Neewa handles it all with great dignity.
Neewa loves to run around the yard, but if I don’t watch her she disappears. Sometimes she can be blocks away in just seconds. I don’t even know where she goes. Dad says she visits other dogs, but I think people invite her into their home. I bet they feed and play with her.
When I realize she has vanished, I call her to come home. Sometimes she barks and runs home like the wind. Other times, it takes hours of searching the neighborhood, calling her name, again and again before I find her.
When I find her, I ask, “Where have you been?” But she won’t tell me. Sometimes when she runs away, I think she may never come home, but she always does.
It was right around this time I started keeping her on the chain more, and that’s when things got weird. Neewa began to dig holes in the yard. First, she dug a hole over by the steps of the house near a cement wall. No one took much notice, until she dug two more holes by our fence. It wasn’t long before the yard was full of holes, a dozen or more. Soon the place looked like the desert in the movie, Holes…. Everywhere you looked there was another and another.
Her favorite holes are the ones that are as big as a cave. She crawls down the entrance on her belly and turns around inside. Then she pokes her head out to watch, smell, and hear everything going on around her. The dirt she digs out of each hole is left in a pile at the opening. She rests her head on this mound and keeps her nose in the air, sniffing the wind, on guard for any intruders.
When our neighbor Jane saw all the holes Neewa dug, she was totally shocked. She thinks Neewa digs the holes to stay cool and away from the heat during the day and at night when it is cold she can stay warm inside.
In high mountain deserts, summer days and nights have a wide range of temperature. The days are ninety to a hundred degrees, but the nights are cool, sometimes even cold.
Tall Bristlecone Pine trees shade most of our yard and Neewa’s play area. The trees keep us cool during the day, especially if there is a breeze.
We don’t have to worry about cutting the lawn. Ha-ha, the grass just doesn’t grow in a place that gets so little rain and sunshine. Dad likes that just fine. One thing he hated back east was cutting the lawn, leaf clean up, and all that stuff.
Flowers in the front of the house attract lots of bees and birds. The bumblebees buzz like little chain saws. And at dusk I’ve seen hummingbirds hovering around the honeysuckle and lilac bushes that crowd the house and give off sweet fragrances.