Big Sur
And the dog whose name I will never forget
What’s the most memorable dog name you’ve heard? Imagine a dog with a name so poetic, so magical, that one chance encounter will have this name glued to your hippocampus.
Here’s a little story about one that I met.
The thick August air reassured us that we didn’t have to rush to find a place to sleep, even with the dimming sky. A few friends and I were driving up the California coast headed to Burning Man, already practicing our laissez-faire attitude, unbothered by the fact that we had nowhere to sleep, though I’m sure I was stressing internally.
We found a group of campers who had no good news. “We booked this site a year ago! You definitely won’t find anything around here.” We pleaded that we were just four, and all we needed was a little corner to sleep on. They had one last offer, “There’s a dude in the woods blasting music, maybe go ask him?”
We climbed a steep hill and listened for the music. Sure enough, as we approached, the music got louder. It was Lynyrd Skynyrd and RUSH and The Cure and songs you’d hear in your friend’s dad’s garage. And the speaker, as promised, was attached to an archetypal Californian man. A surfer, for sure. We laughed. “Wow, there really is a dude in the woods playing music!”
We were a bit weary of this man in the woods sitting next to his giant battery-powered speaker. But a chunky black lab cozied up on a blanket next to him disarmed the situation. We shared stories and drinks and might have traded some weed for a little bag of mushrooms or something, allegedly.
The sound of crashing waves and crickets was revealed between songs, and when the music finally stopped. We rolled up a few thrift store rugs and laid our sleeping bags out. We slept under the stars on towering cliffs as any young-and-in-love kids should do, blissed out on the mystery of the long road of novelty waiting ahead.
The next morning, we collected ourselves at a restaurant called Deetjen’s, where we laughed about the previous night and speculated on why a man was sitting on a cliff in the dark blasting music with his dog. Maybe he had trouble at home, maybe he just needed to get away, maybe someone was sick.
In the end, we romanticized and took liberties with his story. It must have all been for his sweet, unbothered dog. His senior dog, on his way off this terrestrial plane. He brought his dog to the most beautiful place on Earth. To share one last night amongst the sycamores and laurels and redwoods. “This must be their last trip together.”
I don’t recall the man’s name, but his dog had a name so unusual I’ll never forget it. This dog, whose name repeats itself in my head every so often since this chance encounter. This dog, surely of cosmic origin, named Sequoia Dark Star Purple Bear.
There, now this dog’s name can live in your head too.
Love,
Andrew, Yaya, & Boo
SDSPB IS A GREAT NAME. Just too much to type. Beautiful pic of Momo!
just wanna say your publication name made me snicker