Dear Ms. Smiley,

I am writing you because of a story that needs to be told. I’ve been thinking for a number of years that Jane Smiley is just the right author to write about Rusty Pogue. Meeting Jennifer Massoni at RedRoom was the good fortune that finally opened the door. I’ve learned through reading many of your books, that you know horses and dogs, you can delve into people and their psychology and you have a good sense of humor.

Rusty has given me, his sister-in-law, permission to contact you, and send you the following narrative:

                                        Rusty Pogue
“When you handle cattle every day, you cannot believe the number of situations you can get into.”

Rusty Pogue was born in 1948 in Odessa, Tx. He is a cowboy at the McCarty Ranch off the Greybull Highway in Cody, Wyoming. He has been described as the last real cowboy in Wyoming. Rusty is soft-spoken, fair, and knows the psychology of a horse and of cattle. He understands grasses, the meaning of a cow’s first bite and its re-bite. If you talk like a Californian with him, quick and aggressively, he will sit back, smile and let you talk. If you slow down, allow for long pauses, he will tell you some of the most amazing stories you have ever heard, or will teach you about cows, what an early thaw means to the cowboy, or how to break a good horse and teach them to tolerate the rope. His work is a science to him. Rusty had a tumultuous life before he met my sister. His life is now extraordinary, but settled in his work and family. He sees humor in all of his past which is good, because otherwise he might have been filled with anger, resentments and whatever other emotions one would tend to have after having lived a childhood as his. Here are four vignettes about him as Rusty told them to me.

1. When Rusty and his Dad, Billy Dee run away from home:

Rusty was 13 years old, and half way through 7th grade when his dad ran away from home. Billy Dee had been given divorce papers. He bolted, taking Rusty along as his companion. Rusty didn’t finish 7th grade until a year later. The destination was St. Paul where there was promise of work in an aircraft factory.
 
The drive started 5 years of adventures in which an alcoholic Billy Dee went from State to State and job to job, using Rusty to do whatever work Billy Dee was able to find thus leaving Billy Dee free to “go wild.” 

Once on the road, Billy Dee drove until exhausted. He pulled the De Soto over to the side of the road, got out and told the 13 year old Rusty that he was to drive. Rusty got behind the wheel, stuck to the far right side of the road  (in those days there was no shoulder, just a raised curb at the edge) drove 25 miles an hour or less, and just tried not to hit the curb too much for fear of waking Billy Dee.

There was no arguing with Billy Dee. Day two into the drive, Billy Dee announced that since it was just the two of them, he would now consider Rusty a Man. If they had disagreement, well then, they would fight to solve their differences, fist to fist, man to man. There were no disagreements after that.

In St Paul they found an older, once elegant, Victorian boarding house. The inhabitants were drunks and truck drivers. Their room was free when Rusty was volunteered to be the night manager and maid. His shift ended at 3 am every night. He was taught how to vacuum and make beds by the alcoholic Assistant Manager. No one thought about school. Rusty can’t remember ever eating a meal during the 3 or 4 months in which he worked, but he does recall surviving on candy and soda.

Billy Dee went wild and drank. He showed up at the boarding house maybe every three or four days. It always seemed to Rusty that his dad’s appearances were timed to wake him out of a sound sleep. There were adventures to share, sleep was put aside. During these long monologues, Billy Dee would pull out his throwing knife, which he called his “Wife” and practice throwing it into the furniture or door. He had a lousy aim, “but it got to where he could stick it.”

They lasted in St Paul until summer, then took off, with the Assistant Manager to Oregon. Another scheme that was supported through Rusty being put to work and that fell apart due to Billy Dee’s alcoholism and personality. Rusty never returned home to Texas.

2.John Scott Cattle Company – Rusty’s training ground.

Rusty identified himself with the Cowboy for years prior to his first real job as one. This job came as he was, at age 18 or 19, trying to finish high school. His friend, Steve Mitchell, had a truck and enough money to take them to Billings Montana. School could wait.

John Scott is a Texan, and at one time had more than 10,000 head. At an auction in town, Rusty and Steve, and now also brother Bubba heard that John Scott was short some hands for a branding. The Wagon Boss, “ lean, squinty-eyed, bow-legged, with a tooth-pick in his mouth, who didn’t talk much” asked the crucial pre-employment question: “You boys have a saddle and a bed roll?”

John Scott had notoriously ranked out-law horses. Bubba asked for a “rough string” figuring that’s what his dad would have done. Rusty was smarter and was given the string of 15 to 25 year olds. Bubba was bucked off 2 or 3 times a day. Rusty’s string would still kick, bite or buck him off whenever possible, but he stayed in the saddle generally.

Their first job was to “scatter the bulls,” moving hundreds of bulls across the northern end of the ranch towards Pryor Mountain. The point was to scatter the bulls among the cows. This took a week.

 The next task was to gather 150 to 200 cows each day and bring them to the branding. The young cowboys would always go out with one or two older men who knew the land - getting lost was guaranteed without this precaution.

The older cowboys slept on real mattresses, with sheets, blankets and pillows. Comfort took high priority. They’d roll all this up and store it in the wagon during the day. Rusty had an air mattress and sleeping bag. The mattress didn’t last through the first night given the ever-present cactus. Kenny, the Wagon Boss brought out a hot lunch every day, they started work in the pre-dawn dark and finished early afternoon. There were plenty of adventures.

The branding was finished in three weeks at which time they were out of a job. Rusty emerged a Cowboy.

3. Drafted - 1972

Being a Cowboy shaped his experience in the Army. Rusty was stationed in Augsberg, Germany. On base, soldiers could, and did, purchase any type of recreational drug desired, and pretty much at anytime. Rusty avoided the drugs for the sole reason that he felt that cowboys smoked and drank, but they didn’t do drugs.

Rusty made friends with a young German judge, Verner, who admired him for being a cowboy. Every weekend they would go to the local dressage arena and take lessons. These were the first riding lessons Rusty had ever had. He wore jeans and cowboy boots, all he had. The stable boy who saddled up their horses had seen Bonanza on television, and decided that Rusty’s horse should be saddled up as close to Bonanza style as possible. While Rusty rode with an English saddle, his stirrups were hung so low, the perceived Cowboy style, that Rusty said it was like riding bareback – the stirrups were useless. The lessons were in German, so Rusty rode behind his friend who yelled back the English translation of the instructor’s commands.

Before the lesson they drank Jack Daniels or beer, and then afterwards they drank more beer and ate, Verner always doing the ordering. Frequently, They drank the Jack Daniels at Verner’s request –  it was the drink of Cowboys.

4. Thoughts on working cows

“Handling cattle, it’s a funny thing. Some days I can move hundreds of cattle by myself when it should take 2 or 3 others. Other days I can’t move a cow across the road. There are a lot of variables in the job, and much of it is attitude. If I go out in a hurry, I may not get the job done. If I’m thinking that I’ll get done what I can, maybe I’ll finish today, maybe next week… moving them becomes easy. What changes with those two attitudes? You limit yourself when you try to force the cows. It’s harder work. It’s much easier to just set it up and let it happen. People reason and think, but it’s best to give the cows time to find the gate. Your awareness is what matters.”

“The great stockmen are aware and patient. A cow will wear your patience out.” At this point, Rusty holds up his gnarled and cracked index finger with his thumb just ¼ inch from the tip, “This is the amount of patience a cow has, and that’s more than a cowboy has got.” He read in a book once that a lot of guys get old working cow, but that doesn’t mean that they’re great hands. They may just be surviving. It’s the exceptional hand that matters, not the amount of time they put into the job.