Nonfiction

Rick Bass, a Texas native, lived in Arkansas and Mississippi before moving to northwest Montana’s Yaak Valley. A former petroleum geologist and wildlife biologist, he is the author of more than thirty books, including the short story collections The Watch and For a Little While; the memoir Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had; and the novel All the Land to Hold Us. An active environmentalist, Bass is a member of the Yaak Valley Forest Council, working to protect as wilderness the last roadless lands in the Yaak Valley.


Fifteen Dogs

An Essay

by Rick Bass

As part of our year-long celebration marking Narrative’s fifteen years of publishing, we asked some fellow writers to opine on the subject of “15.”

—The Editors


Rip, Buck, Jerry, Joe, Red Issy. Point, Superman, Callie. Linus, Otis, Homer, Ann. Hondo, Sam, Auna. The temptation is to talk endlessly about them—their breeds and dispositions, the great hunts we made together, how they lived and loved, how they died, where they’re buried, what I buried them with—so many home movies. How many man-hours, how many days, weeks, months—what percentage of a life—passed by in which I was cleaning up after them in their first year of life, and again in their fading last years? How many hours spent warming water to add to the kibble? Sweeping the hardwood floors of the daily shedding? Lifting the crates in and out of the Subaru, fumbling with leash clips in the snow. How many trips to the vet, how many hours and years spent training them, and learning to read them. Waiting for them to pee, waiting for them to poop. Gloved with a plastic bag, picking it up steaming, looking for the distant trash receptacle. The sweet irony being, of course, that we serve them far more than they serve us. Service animals, we all are.

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