Predestined Compulsion
WHEN RANCHERS IN CATRON COUNTY, New Mexico, lost livestock due to predators, they made a phone call, and old Bill Blue, government trapper, was dispatched to take care of the felonious varmints. Bill was a twentieth-century mountain man who had never seen the movie Bambi, so he lost no sleep over his controversial role in maintaining the balance of predator and prey.
Bill had a couple of nasty dogs who helped him bring murdering coyotes and mountain lions to justice. Butch was from of some indeterminate hound stock, one ear nearly gone from a long-ago brawl. It was fitting that this dog had a government job; he was surly and had a general disdain for all living creatures.
Bill called his other mutt Princess. Crusty old trappers don't usually give dogs, even girl dogs, such prissy names. True, she had a better personality than Butch, but she was evidently the kind of princess from days of yore when royalty bathed on a biannual basis.
One day I saw Bill parking his old Chevy Apache pickup at the grocery store. Butch was riding in the back, standing on the spare tire, hackles raised, growling at some little kid, who started to cry. The mother's eyes were watering, not from fear, but from the odor of scent bait wafting from Bill's trapping truck.
In spite of his olfactory repugnance, I liked the old man, so I walked over to say hello. Princess was sitting proudly in the pickup cab. She really didn't even look like a dog at first glance. She most closely resembled a sheep whose wool had been partially melted in a horrible chemical spill.
After shaking hands, I commented, "You sure think a lot of that old dog, don't you, Bill?"
"Well now, I guess I do. But that's my business, ain't it?"
"Where'd she get that name, Bill?" I pressed. "She ...
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