Indian Princess Poca Bow-Wow

         Many summers ago, when the Earth was new, the first peoples had moved across the wide lands and now lived on the shore of the Forever Sea. There in a grove of pine trees next to the salty water was born to Wind Song and Bear Hunter a girl child they named “Willow.”

         Willow was small and chubby, with red cheeks on her dark skin and she wore only a smile which pleased Wind Song as she suckled her.

         Willow grew quickly as the young of the people did and when she was six summers old Grxx, one of Bear Hunters’ bitch dogs, gave birth to a litter of six. The first five were normal dogs, but the last was an ugly runt. A female, the runt had short legs and big ears, a tiny tail, and a very small body. The only normal-sized thing was her black eyes which looked like enormous liquid dark moons on her tiny face.

         Willow fell in love with the animal and played with her whenever neither were not eating or sleeping. One evening she said to Bear Hunter, "Father, the runt puppy will never grow up to be one of your hunting dogs, could I have her and raise her as my own?"

         "Child," he replied as he looked up from chipping a new flint for another hunter's spear, his black eyes peering through his long wispy black hair, "If a dog is not able to hunt, it is worthless. Why do you want a worthless dog?”

         "My father," Willow replied, "because she IS worthless. I love her for being so tiny, like me. I will care for her all by myself."

         "You will grow large in a few more summers," her father replied as he chipped off a tiny flake of chert with the tip of a deer horn. "And," he stopped as he chipped another flake off, "and then you won't be so small, you will be a normal sized person. The puppy will still be a runt."

         "But father I will still love the puppy. Please," and her eyes moistened with tears as she touched her father's arm with her small hand.

         Bear Hunter looked up, "Aiyye, no tears; a man cannot argue with a woman's tears, no matter how young or small. The runt puppy is yours, but remember, you must take care of her by yourself...for ever."

         Willow ran to where Grxx was suckling the puppies and told her of her fathers’ gift. Grxx closed her eyes and sighed deeply. She knew how busy puppies, even a single puppy could keep a mother, even a human stepmother. Still, Grxx was pleased because she would be able to devote all of her time and energies in raising five strong hunting dogs and teaching them all that she knew, so she signed when the puppies had finished eating and Willow picked up the runt.

          “I’m going to call her ‘Poca.” Poco means “a little thing”, but Poca is the word for a little female,” she said as she drew the puppy close to her bare chest and kissed the top of Poca’s head. Poca, of course, tried to lick Willows’ mouth while wagging her tail because that is the way dogs and puppies show their love. “Eww, no puppy kisses,” Willow said as she smiled and whipped her mouth off with the back of her hand.

         Time passed and the corn was growing tall, the red beans flowering and climbing near the top of the corn stalks, squash forming under the corn.  “Look, Poca,” Willow said, “the corn is starting to tassel and the beans will begin forming soon. Mother says soon we will have the Green Corn Dance to celebrate a successful harvest.”

         Poca’s legs had grown longer, but still she was only half as tall as her five litter brothers and sisters and her ears were much larger, but still her eyes were too big for her head. Poca tipped her head sideways as Willow spoke.

          “You know, Poca,” Willow said clapping her hands together, “The entire tribe gets dressed in new clothing for the Green Corn Dance, I will make you a new outfit too.”  Willow asked her mother to help.

          “Of course, child,” Wind Song said as she reached into her special basket woven of split willow rods and pulled out a bit of worn rabbit fur and a piece of finely tanned and supple fawn hide. “Sew these into a fine dress with rabbit fur trim, and take this left over dog hair and form it into black hair braids to put over her head.” She dug into the basket again and pulled out a short piece of human hair woven into a thin braid and then strung with round beads made of rabbit tail bone pierced through the center. “Make this a hair band for Poca.”

         Willow got her sewing kit of a bone awn and some thread made of fine cottonwood thistles she had gathered last Spring.  With an obsidian knife her father had made for her she started cutting the fawn hide and the rabbit fur into a new dress for Poca.

         Poca’s outfit was finished just in time for the Green Corn Dance. Willow dressed her carefully and proudly carried her to the Dance. There the rest of the tribe nodded their heads when they saw what Willow had done.

         Wind Song told the tribe, “My daughter Willow has done this to honor Poca, a runt puppy who has become the most beautiful dog the tribe has ever seen.”

         Everyone nodded in agreement, including Willow’s father who said, “I think so too my daughter and wife, so from now on the dog will be known as ‘Indian Princess Poca Bow-Wow’ and honored by all.”

         As time passed, Poca Bow-Wow in turn became a mother and birthed more small dogs like herself. And that’s how the breed of ‘Toy Fox Terriers’ came to be in the world.


-- 995 Words