Leroy's Foos Ball and Pool Hall

Alberto drove the pick-up truck, powered by switch-grass gasoline. They called it grasoline. He and Herald were headed for a place called Leroy's Foos Ball and Pool Hall, a dive in the Port of Pouteau. “It's there that I first heard about the golden circlet,” he told Herald. “Seems there's this girl who can travel up and down the Vertigo. I'm dead-set on finding out more.” They'd been making their way up the Mex-American Plains, documenting small mammals and looking for the elusive prairie dog. “They say she comes to town every month or so. (the girl, not the prairie dog) Here's what I say- we stake it out. Make ourselves useful, wait for her. And then...”, Alberto slowed the truck to look at a brown lump beside the dirt road. “Hot damn, if that ain't a dog!” Herald looked up from the book he'd been reading, The Book of Knowledge, volume seven, copyright 1923. The two men jumped stealthily from the orange truck and approached the dog.
It was a mutt, brown and matted, curled up on itself but still alive. Herald tenderly examined it, looking for wounds, while Alberto scanned the horizon for signs of other dogs.
“It's a female, malnourished, no outward signs of injury...Pregnant.” Herald stroked it's rough fur and exalted in the feeling. “A large mammal.” So used to small mammals like mice and rats that a full sized canine thrilled him deeply. It'd been a long time since he'd seen a dog. Generally, there wasn't enough wildlife to support larger creatures on the plains.
“No sign of her pack,” said Alberto, returning with the emergency care pack. He gave the dog some water, which she roused herself to drink. “This girl needs some peanut butter,” he said and put a generous dollop on both his and Herald's hands for the dog to lick off. The peanut butter was a rare commodity, more valuable than gold. In fact, “Worth its weight in peanut butter,” was a well-known axiom here in the Scrap Age. They gathered up the dog carefully, putting her with them in the cab of the orange truck, and continued on their way.