a looong story about a short dog

[Robert Spenger]

I checked out the UCLA archives, but could no longer find the old
listserv messages. I managed to find my own file of the report I made on
the little dog that followed me for one day on the camino. I have
appended it below. I am sorry that it is so long. Perhaps Pieter still
has a copy of his report on how Trigo adopted him.

regards,

Robert

Note: The event described below occurred in June, 2000.

I must report on one odd experience that I had during
the last week before arriving at Santiago. I left
Gonzar at about 6:00 and at about 7:00 I stopped at a
spot about 4km out, where there were a couple of
benches just before the road went on an overpass
across the carretera. A group of peregrinas from
Brasil had stopped there for a snack and I stopped to
transfer my jacket from my back to my pack. At this
time a little dog came up and one of the ladies gave
it a piece of a cookie and a yogurt cup to lick clean.
The dog ate the cookie, but turned up her nose at the
yogurt cup. Another of the ladies started to walk on
at this time and the dog followed her across the
overpass. The rest of us gradually got going a bit
behind the leader and the dog. After a while the lady
in front stopped to wait for her friends to catch up
and I went on ahead. At that point the dog started
following me and, with occasional switches to other
pilgrims ahead of me, ended up staying with me all the
way into Melide, 26 km in all. Later I heard that
Peregrina (it seemed to be an appropriate name) made
it on into Arca, the next major stop by following
other pilgrims. I had heard that there were stories
about dogs doing this sort of thing, so I made
detailed mental notes of the appearance of the dog to
report on it. Later I was told that a TV station in
Holland had done a special on the pilgrimage and had
mentioned about legends of dogs following the route.
Anyway, Peregrina, is quite small, about the size of a
healthy housecat, but on the skinny side. She has a
reddish brown coat, a pug nose, with black around the
muzzle and the eyes, and also along the top of her
tail. She has long "tail feathers" and flags of a
light tan color. Her feet, especially the front ones,
have a bit of white. She tends to walk with her hind
legs trying to catch up with the front ones to the left
side and her bushy curled tail is canted to the left.
She often goes on ahead and then will look back from
20 or 30 meters out to see if the pilgrim is still
going the right way. In the first village that we came
to, there were several large dogs loose and they set
up a clamor. Peregrina took off like a shot up a side
street with the big dogs in hot pursuit and I thought,
"Oh no, she is desayuno (breakfast)." But a bit further along in
the village she showed up none the worse for the wear.
A that point we came on past a refugio and she went on
over to check it out - going on inside. Later I met a
young woman from Sweden, who was in the refugio at the
time and said that the dog came on upstairs where the
girl petted her and then went out. In another village,
about five loose dogs showed up and three of them
immediately surrounded her. I was close by so I waved
my two walking sticks around and banged them together
a few times to drive the dogs off. Peregrina stayed
close by my heels and we walked on out of the village
with me swinging and banging my sticks. For the next
couple of km she kept quite close to me, but then
started going on out ahead as before.
A couple of times she tried to follow other pilgrims
that were not happy with the idea of a dog tagging
along and made it clear with their walking sticks that
she was not welcome. She knew better than to persist
and continued at my slower pace. Occasionally she
followed others who were more receptive, but somehow
ended up back with me again as we entered Melide. I
stopped at a tienda to get a big bottle of liquid
yogurt to scarf down and she started to follow me in.
I yelled and waved her out and completed my purchase.
When I went out and drank my yogurt, she followed me
for just a way and then disappeared, so I assumed that
she had been discouraged by my chasing her out of the
store. I went on up to the refugio to get my record
stamped and to ask directions to a hotel - I had done
the refugio bit for several nights and was ready for a
break. As I was leaving, someone said that my dog was
outside, and, sure enough, there was Peregrina waiting
at the entrance to the refugio. I went off down the hill
following the directions the hospitalero had given
me and the dog followed me on down. I had been told to
go left at the carretera, but I didn't recognize the
street as a carretera until I had gone about a block
past and had to back track. Just as I turned around,
another dog started chasing her and they were long
gone. I had been wondering how I would handle it when
I got to the hotel, but after that chase, I never saw
her again. Later, I was told that she was seen resting
in the park in Melide, and a couple of Norwegian
ladies told me that she tried to follow them the next
morning, but that they had discouraged her. Evidently
she didn't give up, since much later, in Santiago, I
heard that she had followed others into Arca.