His name is Oyster, meaning in our family jargon, that he is a homeless wanderer. He was brought to me because he had followed someone else home. We both took him back to the field where he had been playing by himself... but he kept wanting to come home with us. I was really annoyed how this friend dumped the dog on me. One day when I came home she'd locked him in my front garden. I tried to take him on a long walk to make him lose interest in following me. But when he followed me into the traffic on the Main road, I became concerned. He was quite relentless, and so loving to me, so I capitulated and took him in. After two days though, I gave him to my ex who had two other dogs and a large garden, and who had kindly consented to adopting him. Every time I went for a visit he'd apparently start yowling (wolf like music) when my car near, and then rush to the gate and bounce up and down. As a young dog he was very svelte and agile, could vault fences three times his height, and had a propensity for standing on his hind legs watching us over the stable door. When the other dogs eventually died of old age, he became a house dog. He is hugely affectionate, a hand licker of note, and groans when you tickle his stomach. But he's a problem out on a walk. If he's on a lead and he sees another dog he goes crazy and jumps off the ground throttling himself or hurting the person holding the lead. He doesn't bark, he yowls on such occasions. If he's off the lead, he gathers himself like a cannon ball and shoots at the other dog at such speed with his head down that the owners scream at us and threaten to club him, but we cannot stop him, and it all ends badly, Though he hasn't bitten another dog so far, he does hunt the cat relentlessly and storms round the garden after her like a train, she had to be sown up after he got her last time. He's totally wild sometimes, a ruthless hunter, and at others the tamest, most affectionate dog I've ever known. He has soft underfur, thick, silky and abundant, that you could knit a comfortable jersey from, and long shaggy hair round the neck and at the back under his tail, its so long and fine, it gets matted easily. So his second name is Doktor Zot, the specialist in matted fur.
One day, I cannot remember what I was looking for, probably researching on Nomads, and the disadvantages of Nomadic life (I've been a short distance high frequency Nomad without fixed abode for seven years and its a difficult life, even with a car and all, and it really gets to me sometimes) I stumbled across a picture of him with some shepherds on the steppes of Asia. What I mean is that this dog was so like him in every way, I had a jolt. I had always thought he was a cocktail of Alsatian, Husky, some Collie or other Sheepdog (they jump apparently) and various other breeds. When I research on Nomad's dogs I find pictures of him frequently. The two dogs at top left are so very like him, the extreme left as he was as a young dog, though his hair is much longer, the middle dog is a spitting image, except the ears have been docked the way they often are in pictures on the net, and on the right is Oyster himself. The tough Nomadic hounds show incredibly different forms and very rich genetic diversity as there are less rules about type and less line breeding I suppose. They've also been mixing with breeds from all over the world.
If you look at a gallery of these dogs you see all the different dog shapes of the world. Plus things you don't normally see, like the strangest spots. some of them are Alsatian like, but there is a heavy gnarliness to the face that is not like the Alsatian. Oyster has very fierce eyes and he gets gnarly eyebrows when he's cross with me, like the time I had him clipped to help him survive the summer heat. He hated it, and it started off a skin disease that didn't go away till his hair grew again. There are also the type of Nomad dog, the mountain variety, with the ridiculously long legs and long silky fur, there are huge bully brindled ones that look like mastiffs, and some like sheep dogs and others approaching the large woolliness of Newfoundlands, but again and again, about 10% of them look like Oyster, shaggy, with thick long hair around neck and tail. They apparently have a dense soft under pelt, and there is something about the shape of their eyes lined with black, and the legs, that is just so like him. Colour and markings can take any form, there are no rules. But its mostly what I read about the Nomadic dog's personality that makes me feel eery... They are bred as sheep dogs, guard dogs, extremely tough and hardy for the long treks through the desert and snow, and also bred as fighters. Many of the pictures are of dogs that are bleeding, or dead, or being dragged off the field by one hind leg. One picture even showed a fight in which both dogs were red all over, had each other by the throat, and a hind leg had been completely severed with a bony stump emerging. The spotty one above is being held back before a fighting match. Many pictures show them with American soldiers who have fallen for them, or with local soldiers who take them along wherever they go. They are clever dogs. Oyster can read my behaviour and differentiate between me getting dressed to go to work, and getting dressed to go for a walk, I know because of the aria when we're going to do the area. They are also very vocal dogs. They bond more intensely with humans than many other dogs, yet they are fiercely independent, and problematic, and don't suit "Western culture" and going for sedate walks in the park, due to their aggressive nature, disobedience, and the need for lots of space to run in. Perhaps this is why Oyster runs like the wind and goes for every other dog he sees even half a kilometre away. It seems if he sees a dog in the distance it drives him mad, but he is totally placid, even submissive with the dogs he lives with. Suddenly all the things that are awful and wonderful about Oyster seem to make sense. Strange that he found me. I've tried to take him back to his previous owners, and sometimes coming from the park he used to head another way, and not to my place, and then it was as if his memory failed him and he'd focus on finding something to eat in the gutter. He'd not greedy though, not inclined to eat when he's not hungry, but he likes free ranging, a scavenger at heart, a bone picker. Is he or is he not a Nomad's dog, from the other side of the world ? Did his immediate ancestors roam the deserts of Asia or am I giving my pavement special an acceptable middle class background ? I don't know, but I do know I'm not a dog breed snob, and Oyster is so exceptional in himself, he doesn't need any romanticising.
However, this strange coincidence has lead to me seeing a lot of National Geographic style pictures of the the Nomads and their breathtaking beadwork and camels... They are pressed by issues suffered by minorities everywhere: marginalization, poverty, threatened life styles and languages, and it seems romanticization. I think more reading on these issues would be the next thing to do.
However, this strange coincidence has lead to me seeing a lot of National Geographic style pictures of the the Nomads and their breathtaking beadwork and camels... They are pressed by issues suffered by minorities everywhere: marginalization, poverty, threatened life styles and languages, and it seems romanticization. I think more reading on these issues would be the next thing to do.