A Dog Named Star

Vash's dog, Star.

Those tattoos on his arm he did himself. He had another on his shoulder of a flame which looked even more awesome than this, but I didn't get a photo of it. I know I should have, but I was pressed for time.

I went downtown with Paula ( www.flickr.com/photos/paulabermudez/ ) and Greg for a Flickr meet-up and saw them outside City Hall again. So this time I asked their names. Another young homeless man named Shiva had joined them, and told me he'd lived in the woods for a full year before returning to the city. I gave him my Distillers patch cuz he asked it he could have it. "Sure," I said, "I'll just make another one."
"You make these?" Shiva inquired.
"Yeah," I replied. "I can put any design I want on them."
"Oh, hey," Shiva said excitedly, "Could you make me a patch with Shiva, the god of destruction on it? And another one with a nine-tailed fox? They're called Kitsune."
Then Vash asked if I could make him a patch with a wolf on it in exchange for one of his many hats. "We barter out here," he explained. Shiva offered to make me a hand-sewn leather pouch like the one around his neck, decorated with a yin-yang (How Portland!). I laughed and said I'd be back on Sunday.

But on Sunday, I came to find that the entire flank of City Hall where they'd been camped was deserted. But I knew that Shiva played accordion at the Saturday Market, so my friend Dylan and I caught the MAX to go see him. At the first stop, though, I happened to glance over my shoulder and see Star, Vash's dog, laying on the sidewalk next to an Vash and another young man I hadn't met before. I grabbed Dylan's arm and said, "C'mon, we'll catch the next one!"
Vash was asleep, so his companion greeted me. I showed him the patches and told him to give them to Vash when he woke up. But the young man insisted that Vash wake up: "He has got to see these!"
He shook his companion by the shoulder. Vash looked up. "Oh, hey," he said groggily.
"Got your patches for you," I said. The man whose name I didn't know handed them to Vash.
"Niiice," he said. Then, to his companion, "Where'd you put that hat I let you borrow? I told you someone was coming for it."
After a bit of rummaging around for a bit, he found it and handed it over, just as the MAX was headed down the tracks. Vash gave me a big hug before Dyland and I got on our way.
We never did find Shiva or Dib. But Vash's companion said they were well, and that I could get Shiva's patches to him on a later date. He'd be around sooner or later, playing his accordion at the Saturday Market or camped out by the MAX station.
Awesome people.