Ben waved when he saw Musa and Dr. Lewis, and he changed direction towards them. Smudge hopped up onto the paddock wall and walked along it next to him. As they met up with the ranger and the doctor Smudge motioned for Musa to put down the rifle and Ben pressed a finger to his lips for them to be quiet.
The wide pen gate groaned as Spot swung it open. He closed it behind the female rhino and as he slid the latching bar home the sick animal labored past the spectators. They noticed her lower half was covered in wet mud. Dr. Lewis could see she was still drooling foam but there was a hint of spring in her step. She hadn’t seen the animal take more than a dozen pained steps since she and her mate had arrived.
“Got it!” Kelcy yelled from inside the paddock.
She rolled to her knees in front of the massive male rhino. She held up a big pair of pliers and showed whatever was pinched in its jaws to the creature. He sniffed it and then bent down to lick his front hoof. He stomped it a few times, and then his black tongue came out again and slimed the pliers and Kelcy’s whole hand and arm up to her elbow with foamy spittle.
“Eww,” she said, “Okay, that’s disgusting.”
As the female rhino joined them and gently knocked horns with the male Kelcy patted them both and backed away. She wiped her hand on her jeans as she turned and noticed the pair of stunned faces staring at her from the paddock wall.
Kelcy raised her hands as she approached them. She said, “I know I’m in big trouble for this Dr. Lewis, but before you start yelling I think we should go get the triazoles and liposomals. They’re both running a bit of a fever at just over thirty-nine, and resting pulse is forty-five. I think we should start the first course on these guys. I can explain later how the pups learned to speak a little rhino.”
Spot got her attention with a yap, and then he signed.
Kelcy said, “Oh yeah, and just for the record this was all my doing. They were all unwilling participants.”
Chapter 77
“Jock! No! Don’t you dare!” Kelcy screamed, and held her hands in front of her face before being hit with another blast of water.
The elephant she was riding dropped its trunk back into the river. Faith had told Kelcy their oldest, biggest bull elly was gentle and a little bit stupid, so she’d named him Jock, after Hamish.
Faith, who was sitting backwards on the elephant in front of Kelcy, flapped her hands at her sides again. Jock raised his huge trunk, pointed it at the girl on his back, and opened the nubby fingers at the end. Another shower of warm water shot out and covered Kelcy.
Ben howled, held his sides, and almost fell off his elephant. He said, “Sorry, ma’am, we’ve been meaning the get that leak fixed.”
Faith turned and motioned to Ben’s elephant but the boy dug his feet into the massive animal’s ears and it splashed over to the far bank in a few bounding steps.
They moved out of the river and rode the string of elephants through the brush. The huge animals snacked as they walked, stripping bark and leaves from the trees. They followed the river until noon when Theo and Faith led them into a large green clearing.
A family group of imbabala bushbuck were napping in the shade of a high rock wall at the far side of the glade. The lead male rose to watch the humans climb down from the elephants. He shook his long twisting spiked horns and stomped the ground before moving his harem downriver.
“Thank you for inviting me to join you,” Tian said, his biceps flexing as he easily slid a heavy cooler from the back of one of the kneeling elephants, “They are a most impressive animal.”
Faith smoothed a corner of the heavy blanket she had spread out on the grass and said, “You are very welcome young man, you all are. We are pleased to have you here, truly.”
“Are you so sure about that?” Mimi said as she opened her pack and took out several plastic food containers, “I can’t say I would be so happy to have nine new mouths to feed around my house, and a pack of smelly dogs.”
Theo passed a bottle of water to Dan and said, “Telling truths, I was a bit horrified when you all pulled into camp. You could have been a convincing band of bergies but mother is correct, you’ve been a fine addition to our little ranch. The work Hamish is doing notwithstanding, each of you are pulling your own weight. That was certainly not a requirement of you staying with us.”
“I’d hardly say we’ve made a dent in the balance sheet, Theo,” Aila said, “Look at it from our perspective. Forget the fact you brought us here in a private jet. We have rooms that rival any hotel, and we’ve spent amazing nights under a billion stars in your tented camp. We’ve ridden ellys, played with cheetahs, eaten boar and wildebeest. People from the states would consider a few days here the trip of a lifetime…and there are a million intangibles. Watching my mother there use a slingshot to keep the monkeys away from her cooling pies was priceless. I don’t even want to get started on the kids, or our pups. Let’s not forget the very act of allowing us to stay here has saved our lives.”
“Perspective and intangibles are exactly the right words,” Faith said as she kneeled next to her son, “Your group has brought energy and talent to our ranch, and I think you take that gift for granted. Doctor Lewis is in love with Kelcy, and Musa goes on and on about Ben and Christa’s contributions. I just heard they fiddled with the painted dog’s radio collars to double their range, and her secret formula foot wax works as well on my old hoofs as it does on the ellys. Dan and Aila have my office running better than it ever has, and found a way to save me a year’s worth of interest charges in less than a month. We haven’t eaten this well in a long time, and you’ve introduced us to the most unique dogs the world has ever seen. If you haven’t noticed, we’re kinda into strange animals around here. And maybe my son won’t mention Hamish’s work, but I will. Your team is going to revolutionize the way poaching is fought in all of Africa, I can feel it. I’d say you’re doing just fine, Hogans and Walkers, and friends. I also suspect you damn resourceful people didn’t need us to keep you alive…our impressive Tian here could have done that with one arm tied behind his back.”
She winked at the Chinese man, and he visibly blushed.
As Faith passed around lunch plates she paused at Theo, and kissed her son on the head. She said, “But by far the biggest benefit of your coming here has been my overworked son taking some time to reconnect with this ranch, and all of us. So for that I thank you, and hope that you will stay with us for as long as you’re happy to be here.”
Theo tipped his water bottle to the group, and they nodded back at him.
They ate a lunch of smoked sausage Gatsby’s, which are similar to hoagies. Afterwards they lounged in the afternoon sun and snacked on jam-filled coconut tarts called hertzoggies. They were another one of Faith’s recipes Mimi had become addicted to.
The group watched the elephants playing in the river as they chatted about nothing more important than what to toss on the braai for dinner.
Faith and Mimi watched Tian walking along the riverbank. Every few feet he stooped to pick up small, red rocks.
“So tell me, Tian,” Faith said, “Are all of the men from Kowloon as stroppy and handsome as you?”
The Chinese man immediately turned redder than the rocks in his hand. He shuffled his feet and without looking up said, “I wouldn’t be aware of such things, ma’am.”
“We call that the strong, silent type,” Mimi said to Faith, smiling.
“We do too,” Faith said, “Tian, have you heard from your fiancee?”
Theo shot his mother a look. He marveled at her ability to wrap the most prying questions around a velvet glove of compliments. Theo also noted both Walker women possessed the same gift.
“No,” Tian said, “Agent Comina is in contact with her family. They sent word that Du Wen is well, but chooses not to be disturbed.”
Mimi and Faith exchanged a look, and Aila shook her head as she tossed bits of bread from her sandwich to the young guinea fowl pecking near the blanket.
The pups came t
rotting over from the rock wall with Hamish, Ben, and Kelcy. The kids were each carrying one large rock and one smaller rock.
They dumped them at the edge of the blanket and Kelcy said, “Is this what you wanted?”
Tian knelt next to them. “Yes,” he said as he examined the rocks, “This is perfect.”
He emptied two handfuls of the small red stones from his pockets. As the adults watched, Tian showed the kids how to grind the soft, flakey stones using the rocks as a mortar and pestle. They ground two piles of fine red powder that he carefully combined onto one of the paper plates. Tian wet his finger from a bottle of water, dipped it into the powder, and wiped it on Ben’s cheek. It left a bright red streak.
The pups were standing next to the kids, watching the process. Spot opened his paw and signed, and Ben translated, “Is that ochre?”
Tian looked at the dog and said, “You know this?”
Spot nodded, and signed again. Ben said, “Hematite?”
“Yes, hematite,” Tian said. He looked at the rest of the adults seated around the blanket.
Hamish said, “We know, Tian, trust me. You can get used to it but it never really goes away, lad.”
As Tian carefully picked up the plate and led the kids and the dogs to the rock wall Theo said, “So how smart are they, exactly?”
Hamish smiled and said, “Myself and others have made the mistake of asking that very question. Be careful, bru, you may not like the answer.”
Aila waved Hamish off. “Smudge seems to be at least as smart as any of us,” she said, “And way smarter than Dan, of course.”
“And her smarts come from a place driven more from intuition than her brother,” Mimi said, “She’s very in tune with her surroundings and reads even the most subtle of feedback. She’s empathetic and compassionate, almost to the point of clairvoyancy.”
“Aye. She is that,” Hamish said, “And then there’s our wee boy Spot. He’s a different kettle of fish altogether. Sometimes I think he’s just bloody putting up with us. Christa is one of the smartest people I know and he seems to always be two steps ahead of her. Drives the poor girl mad.”
“It’s certainly a different kind of intelligence,” Dan said, “And I don’t just mean because he’s a dog. If you watch carefully he often seems to be processing multiple pieces of information at the same time. I’ve seen him carrying on a silly conversation with Ben, a deep medical conversation with Kelcy, and all the while reading something technical and completely unrelated on his tablet. Of course Aila talks while she’s reading too, but her conversation is mostly gibberish.”
From the rock wall Kelcy whistled and waved to the adults lounging on the blanket. She jumped up and down as she beckoned for them.
The group joined them, and circled around Ben as he held his hands against the rock. Tian tipped a water bottle to Ben’s lips. The liquid in the bottle was thick, and bright red. Ben took a large mouthful and spit it out in a fine spray that covered his hands. When he removed them a brilliant red, well-defined outline of his palms and spread fingers was left behind on the rock wall.
As Ben rinsed his mouth with clean water Faith said, “That’s remarkable, Tian. I love it. Can I try?”
A few minutes later a laughing group of people with rolled up sleeves and red chins and hands stood back to admire their work.
“What about them?” Theo said, nodding to the dogs.
“Your turn,” Dan said to the pups, “Hey, can you guys spray out water like that?”
Smudge signed, and Ben said, “I don’t know, we’ve never tried.”
Smudge put her paws up on the rock wall, spreading them open just below the human hand prints. She took a big breath and Tian tipped the red bottle to her mouth. The black dog drew in a mouthful, huffed, coughed, and sneezed the red liquid out. It covered Tian in a fine cloud, but she had missed the wall completely.
As Smudge continued to cough and sputter she removed a paw from the rock and signed.
“Sorry about that,” Ben said, trying not to laugh out loud. The rest of the group couldn’t hold back and they all fell apart, hooting and laughing as red paint dripped from Smudge’s nose, and ran down Tian’s face.
Ben took over spraying, and a few minutes later both of the pups’ split paw prints were proudly displayed under the dozen human handprints.
“So Tian,” Faith said as she wiped her wet hands on Theo’s shirt, “Can I assume you studied the art of the San caves we have here in the KZN, and their hybrid men paintings?”
“Very good, Faith. Yes,” Tian said, “I saw Spot and Smudge walking over the red ochre pebbles at the river and one of my professor’s voices jumped into my head.”
“Hybrid men?” Ben asked.
Everyone looked at Spot.
He just shrugged.
“Useless,” Ben said, “So disappointed.” He turned to Tian and asked, “So what about it?”
“Faith please correct me if I misspeak,” Tian said, “But the San people were the original bushmen here in southern Africa, and some of the first known artists. The caves here in the Kwazulu-Natal are rich with their surviving paintings, many of which were done in red ochre and blown over their hands just as we’ve done here. Only they may have done their work a hundred thousand years ago.”
“Whoa,” Ben said, “Was that cool to watch, Unc?”
As Hamish scowled at the laughing group Tian smiled and said, “They are also famous for painting hybrids. Figures that are half man and half dog. We assume them to have been representative of shaman, or healers.” Tian looked down at the wagging pups and said, “They were obviously held in high esteem as they were placed above all others on the cave walls.”
Spot signed, and looked around at the group as Ben said, “Well that makes sense, so who wants to give me a boost?”
As the group was still laughing Theo’s phone rang.
He answered it, listened, and then turned to Hamish and said, “Musa says the guy’s talking.”
Chapter 78
“No,” Ben said flatly, “Absolutely not.”
We’ll just introduce ourselves, Spot signed, and be back in a few hours.
Yeah, you gotta let us go, Smudge said, They’re the rarest dogs in the whole world. You heard Musa, there are only a few hundred left in all of southern Africa. Ben, think about that. Few hundred. Few. Hundred. All of Africa. Rare. The whole world. Almost extinct. We may never get the chance to see them again.
“I’m really sorry about that,” Ben said, “but I’m sure all of them won’t die tonight. I just don’t understand your fixation with immediately having to bother the neighbors the second we go anywhere new, you two are worse than Hamish and Mimi.”
I am so going to tell them you said that, Smudge said.
Ben wasn’t in a joking mood. He gave his girl dog a dirty look and went to the bathroom. As he sat on the toilet Spot grabbed his tablet from the nightstand and started to tap around on the screen.
Smudge got down from the bed and pulled back the front window’s curtain. She could see up the hill to the main house’s boma where a fire still glowed, and down the hill to the moon’s reflection on the watering hole.
As Ben flushed and switched off the bathroom light they heard another round of yaps and howls from somewhere in the dark at the bottom of the valley.
You hear that? Smudge said as Ben washed up at the sink, They’re right outside. That was probably one of them expiring as we sat here and listened to you crapping. We may not get the chance to bump into them again. Musa said they’re total nomads.
She’s right, Spot said, they’ll probably be kilometers away by morning. It’s far safer to meet them close to the ranch.
As Ben climbed back into bed Smudge joined him and her brother. Spot spun the tablet around and showed him a picture of a wild African painted dog puppy.
Look at that face, Smudge said as she leaned against Ben, Less than a few hundred of those big ears and patchwork coats left.
“Oh great,” Ben sa
id, “Make me the asshole.”
Spot set the tablet aside and put his paw on Ben’s chest. He looked at him and signed, Why are we here?
“You know why we’re here,” Ben said, “Cut it out. I mean it, don’t go there.” Ben could tell by his dog’s face he was in for a Spot lecture. Even Smudge settled back and turned to watch her brother.
Have you considered maybe we came to this place not to run away, Spot said, but to find out what we’re really meant to do? I believe Kelcy was right, we have something more to contribute and I believe Faith is onto something as well. An argument could be made that we’ve not been great stewards of the gifts we’ve been given. Think about how we could potentially help these painted dogs. Our brethren, who are about to be wiped from the face of the earth. These painted dogs are not like the coyotes or wolves. They are a totally unique genus…and the last of its kind.
Can I get a witness, Smudge said, lowering her head and raising a paw to the ceiling.
Spot ignored her and said, We showed a scrappy bunch of coyotes how to alter their habits to not just survive, but to thrive in an environment threatened by human encroachment. We showed a female coyote and a female gray wolf they had what it takes to lead a pack, and they excelled at it. Maybe we can make a difference here, where it matters much more than it did in Pembury, or Piege.
Ben looked at his pups for a long moment. Another round of yips and calls came from the bush.
“Okay,” Ben said, “I agree you might be able to make a difference but there’s one thing you’re conveniently forgetting to mention. These dogs are also the most effective killers in Africa. Actually, they are the most effective killers of all the large mammals. Pardon the language, but the big cats look like pussies compared to these guys when you look at the percentages. Lions might take down prey ten percent of the time where your little painted buddies out there kill at well over eighty percent. Thomson’s gazelles are a little bit faster than the soon-to-be-extinct Pembury black mutt. These dogs run their prey to exhaustion, and Cu Sith here may not be enough to keep you both safe. You two have also conveniently forgotten about the other hundred or so top killers lurking around out there.”
Let Slip the Pups of War: Spot and Smudge - Book Three Page 34