Janferie StoneMay of 2000 , when Vera visited California with her infant son and
her five-year-old daughter, (little) Alyssa, namesake of her American
friend. Unfortunately, the end of Vera’s visit overlapped with a previ-
ous commitment I had made to travel overseas with my mother. Be-
cause I would not be able to take Vera and her children to the air-
port, I contacted Alyssa who was living to the northeastern interior
of Mendocino County. While she was extremely busy working on en-
vironmental campaigns and felt disconnected from her Guatemalan
past, she agreed to help.
After Vera taught her class on the Mendocino coast, we drove sev-
enty miles up into the interior. The heat was intense and the air crack-
ling and dry, so that we arrived headachy, our energy sapped. As I pre-
pared to leave, Alyssa suggested I wait a half hour more, passing the
time in her garden. We trailed out across the hills, the five of us and
her dog. I was moving ahead on the path when I heard screaming and
turned to see that the dog had little Alyssa down on the ground and
was slashing at her face. I did not think but ran past Vera, who was
holding the baby up out of the way. I pushed the dog off and lifted
little Alyssa high above my shoulders. The dog leapt up on me trying
to get to her. I began moving swiftly back toward the house, thinking
that Alyssa (elder) would get the dog under control, and Vera would
bring the baby. I wanted to distance the little girl from the dog and
clean her to see how badly she was hurt. Fortunately, the dog was a
hunting breed, soft-mouthed for retrieving birds, and there was only
a small puncture wound near Alyssa’s mouth that nevertheless pro-
duced a great deal of blood as she sobbed quietly. Back at the house,
we were completely disoriented by the sudden eruption of violence,
and Alyssa’s children were further disturbed by what might happen
to their beloved family dog because of the attack.
What force had animated the dog? The attack could be attributed
to a number of factors. The dog had been on put on medication a few
weeks before. Talking with friends afterward, I heard two accounts
of otherwise sedate family pets suddenly attacking five-year-old chil-
dren; the size and movement of the young human triggered some an-
cient wiring, breaking through the dog’s breeding and training. Per-
haps the busyness of our lives had stressed all the beings involved.