Speaker 1: Welcome to this Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves
Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trot lighting and just general country living.
Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share
Speaker 1: my experiences and life lessons. This Country Life is presented
Speaker 1: by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you
Speaker 1: the best outdoor podcast the airways had off. All right, friends,
Speaker 1: grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some
Speaker 1: stories to share. Dogs and man love story. Dogs and
Speaker 1: man have been rambling around the planet for a long
Speaker 1: time now, me like I'm sure a lot of you,
Speaker 1: are never without one. There's never been a time in
Speaker 1: my life when I didn't have at least one dog.
Speaker 1: And it's to that end that I'm here today talking
Speaker 1: about these animals that we all love so But why,
Speaker 1: That's my question, and I'm going to talk all about it.
Speaker 1: But first I'm going to tell you a story. John
Speaker 1: Carl Deckleman Buddy to his friends and Booed to his grandchildren.
Speaker 1: He was a tradesman adept in agricultural related work, from
Speaker 1: cattle to lumber production. He had several jobs associated with farming.
Speaker 1: That was a natural progression in his life. Being from
Speaker 1: the Mississippi River Delta town of Elaine, Arkansas. Rabbit hunting
Speaker 1: was his pastime and beagles were his passion. The small beagles,
Speaker 1: the thirteen inch beagles, the ones that looked like little
Speaker 1: walker puppies even when they're full grown. None of my
Speaker 1: favorites too, But Buddy and his hunting pals, one being
Speaker 1: the store owner, kept a pen full of beagles out
Speaker 1: behind Sibilis Apply Store in West Helena, a small town
Speaker 1: on the bank of the Mississippi River in Arkansas. The
Speaker 1: dogs were carried for daily by someone in the group,
Speaker 1: and on weekends they'd all meet load the dogs off
Speaker 1: to the rabbit woods. They'd go a lot of trips
Speaker 1: were the Jackson Point Hunting Club, a famed piece of
Speaker 1: land along the river that both trophy deer and world
Speaker 1: class duck hunting, and, according to Buddy, a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of rapids. The group of men were also beg in
Speaker 1: to field trialing their dogs, and Buddy's favorite was his
Speaker 1: blanket backed red eared beagle named Nancy Anne. Nancy Anne
Speaker 1: was his pride and joy and the leader of the
Speaker 1: pack of dogs he called his own, and the honorable
Speaker 1: mentions for funny Face and pretty Girl, both puppies of
Speaker 1: Nancy Anne, but she was number one. A. Buddy had
Speaker 1: an opportunity to cross Nancy Anne with another champion beagle
Speaker 1: in Clarksdale, Mississis, and he carried her across the river,
Speaker 1: only a thirty minute ride away, and he left her
Speaker 1: in hopes of a successful union that would add more
Speaker 1: little Nancy Anne's to his pack, and with their mother
Speaker 1: and Buddy to show them the ropes they had any
Speaker 1: desire at all, it would be a simple task, but
Speaker 1: first we had to have puppies. But that wouldn't happen.
Speaker 1: She got out of the pen in Clarksdale not long
Speaker 1: after Buddy left her, and she was gone, and with
Speaker 1: her disappearance, the hope for a new generation of top
Speaker 1: notch rabbit chasers left with her, and Buddy was devastated.
Speaker 1: His granddaughters told me that they remember how distraught Bood was.
Speaker 1: There was no dogs in Buddy's house, but his connection
Speaker 1: with Nancy Anne was obvious to everyone that knew him.
Speaker 1: She was his hunting partner as much as either of
Speaker 1: his friends, whose dogs were kept in the same kennel,
Speaker 1: But either one of his friends were busy and unable
Speaker 1: to go. Nancy Anne was still there. She was always
Speaker 1: ready and hunted just as hard at the end of
Speaker 1: the day as she did at the beginning. She was
Speaker 1: a lot like Buddy. Her life was simple and she
Speaker 1: worked hard. Maybe that's why they were so close, each
Speaker 1: having a similar philosophy. You see a job, and you
Speaker 1: do a job to work hard while doing it. Days
Speaker 1: went by him, crossing the river and searching for her,
Speaker 1: until it seemed all hope was lost. Dole of a
Speaker 1: basket full of puppies from Nancy Anne, a faint reminder
Speaker 1: of why she was out of Buddy's direct care to
Speaker 1: begin with. Now, no number of puppies could replace what
Speaker 1: Buddy had lost. Nancy Anne was gone. The house phone
Speaker 1: in Tyler, Texas, rang, and whoever answered it announced joyfully
Speaker 1: to everyone that Nancy Ann had been found and was
Speaker 1: now home with Buddy or bood as Alexis called him.
Speaker 1: And in two thousand and one, when Boode passed away,
Speaker 1: Nancy Anne would spend the rest of her days in
Speaker 1: Texas being loved on by Buddy's daughter, his son in law,
Speaker 1: and his granddaughters, one of which just happens to be
Speaker 1: my wife. Not a unique story, but a lesson and
Speaker 1: never relinquishing hope. That's a lesson for us all. And
Speaker 1: that's just how that happened. The bond of a man
Speaker 1: and dog has been scientifically documented to fifteen thousand years ago.
Speaker 1: On the evil World War One, some dudes were digging
Speaker 1: around over in Bond, Germany and found a dog skeleton
Speaker 1: buried alongside two humans. The DNA of that specimen, it
Speaker 1: turns out, was that of a domesticated dog like we
Speaker 1: have now, running around the yard in the house and
Speaker 1: dropping hair on the floor like a crop duster. Now
Speaker 1: did they dig up the first couple who owned a
Speaker 1: pet dog? Who knows, but I highly doubt it. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine the criteria to search for the first of anything,
Speaker 1: and how you'd qualify it if you found it. You
Speaker 1: can only surmise that the dog meant something for them
Speaker 1: to have been buried with it, if folks now thought
Speaker 1: the way they did in some degree, Egyptian pharaohes were
Speaker 1: buried with all their goodies and sometimes their favorite folks.
Speaker 1: That's right. The old saying of you can't take it
Speaker 1: with you, well, that was obviously coined long after the
Speaker 1: nose fell off the sphinx's face, because them folks thought
Speaker 1: you could what a rotten retirement plan. I bet the
Speaker 1: anxiety ran high in the Pharaoh's house every time that
Speaker 1: Rascal caught a cold. But the dog that was found
Speaker 1: in Germany at that burial site is the closest link
Speaker 1: known to exist between wolves and old Whalen. The coonhound
Speaker 1: that's currently taking up space right beside my chair, now
Speaker 1: he's a member of this family, according not only to me,
Speaker 1: but my wife Alexis and my daughter Bailey will also attest.
Speaker 1: But why how does an animal develop a place of
Speaker 1: such importance in a human's world? Of what matters? Some
Speaker 1: folks believe it's the nurture and instinct of humans to
Speaker 1: care for other beings. There's always exception, but speaking of
Speaker 1: humanity as a whole, our species natural behavior is to
Speaker 1: provide care for those around us, including animals. Now, there's
Speaker 1: also the argument that we take care of and protect
Speaker 1: things of value, things that provide and perform a service,
Speaker 1: like a herding dog, a protective dog, or in my case,
Speaker 1: a hunt dog. I've had several over the years, But
Speaker 1: just like family members and friends, there there will be
Speaker 1: a select number that will stand out above the rest.
Speaker 1: That's my focus and what I find interested. My dad
Speaker 1: was known for having good tree dogs and good running dogs,
Speaker 1: and each were cared for totally different ways. Running dogs
Speaker 1: were kept in a big pen across the road from
Speaker 1: his house, and they were fed and watered and medicated
Speaker 1: as needed. Their pen was kept clean, and they lacked
Speaker 1: for nothing in regard to their health and welfare. Squirrel dogs,
Speaker 1: on occasions were kept in there too, but the majority
Speaker 1: of the time they hung out in the front yard.
Speaker 1: The running dogs were tools and a means to an end,
Speaker 1: just like the squirrel dogs, but were not in this
Speaker 1: intimate of a setting. That was the difference. Ten or
Speaker 1: fifteen running walker hounds would be loaded in the back
Speaker 1: of his truck, and when the suitable conditions or signed
Speaker 1: was found a fresh coyode activity some are all of
Speaker 1: them would be released at once. The rest of the
Speaker 1: event was a listening party as to what dog was
Speaker 1: leading the pack, which one had the best sound in bar,
Speaker 1: and so on and so on. Outside of turning them
Speaker 1: loose and catching them, there was no other man and
Speaker 1: dog interaction. They responded to my dad because he was
Speaker 1: the guy they recognized that fed them. I couldn't get
Speaker 1: those dogs to do much of anything. When it came
Speaker 1: to commands, there was only one alpha, and it was
Speaker 1: my dad, not me. When they saw him coming, they
Speaker 1: knew they were fixing to do one of two things.
Speaker 1: They were either loading up in the truck to go
Speaker 1: hunting or they were fixing to eat. Both activities were
Speaker 1: their favorites. Those hounds were pretty stand office and not
Speaker 1: at all friendly, or how we've come to view dogs
Speaker 1: that are friendly. Now, you compare that to their hunting cousin,
Speaker 1: the Tree and Walker, like the one that's laying on
Speaker 1: his back like a dead cockroach right beside my desk
Speaker 1: right now, and you'd think they were two totally different
Speaker 1: species animals, when in fact they came from the same
Speaker 1: corral of English foxhounds brought over from England, and credit
Speaker 1: to John Walker and George Washington Mappin's cross of hounds
Speaker 1: that became the Tree and Walker coonhound. There's some intrigue
Speaker 1: and criminality that went into that story back in the
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, but I'll say that for another day. It's
Speaker 1: pretty interesting. Nonetheless, the running walkers and Tree and Walkers,
Speaker 1: they look basically the same, but how I interact with
Speaker 1: them is totally different and that is where the true
Speaker 1: difference is whaling my tree and Walker is as much
Speaker 1: of a lap dog as he is a hunting dog,
Speaker 1: But how we interact is where it separates. I go
Speaker 1: with him and when he hunts, following his every move,
Speaker 1: and when he gets a coon treat, he barks to
Speaker 1: call me to him, and he won't leave until I
Speaker 1: get there. He's trained where I can call him to me.
Speaker 1: But when describing the attributes of a good tree dog,
Speaker 1: it is a plus for one to be accurate, obviously,
Speaker 1: but also one that will stay until you get there.
Speaker 1: Just like my dad's running hounds and his squirrel dogs,
Speaker 1: the way he interacted with them was the exact opposite.
Speaker 1: A running hound that came back to where we were
Speaker 1: listening to the race for no apparent reason, was greeted
Speaker 1: by my dad's size ten red wing to that hounds
Speaker 1: behind to remind him that his job was to run
Speaker 1: and bark at the colt, and it was our job
Speaker 1: to listen. And just like the folks that dug up
Speaker 1: the two humans that had a dog buried with him
Speaker 1: in Germany, we were guessing as to what was really
Speaker 1: going on out there in that cold race, and couldn't
Speaker 1: testify under oath that all those dogs were actually running
Speaker 1: a cold. We hardly ever saw it. We were never
Speaker 1: close enough, especially hunting at night with the dogs in
Speaker 1: the middle of the woods and us sitting on the
Speaker 1: tailgate or in a lawn chair quarter of a mile
Speaker 1: or more away. The dogs may have cracked the cod
Speaker 1: and figured out that if they all ran around in
Speaker 1: the circles like they were chasing a coat, the dab
Speaker 1: would be happy and maybe throw out a few extra
Speaker 1: scoops of feed when they all got back home. The
Speaker 1: squirrel hunting that it's different, and we used different dogs.
Speaker 1: Mountain curves, firests in every combination of each that you
Speaker 1: can think of, were what we used. Ninety nine percent
Speaker 1: of them were bobtail That hunt, like coon hunting, was
Speaker 1: more intimate. We rode horses mainly, but sometimes walked behind
Speaker 1: the dogs as they criss crossed out in front of us,
Speaker 1: looking for the center of a squirrel and occasionally checking
Speaker 1: back in to see how close we were. Following them
Speaker 1: through the woods and ideally not getting more than three
Speaker 1: hundred yards or so away before they'd make a loop
Speaker 1: back to see where we were. If there were a
Speaker 1: lot of squirrels. They never made that checking in because
Speaker 1: we were always with them. They were used to us
Speaker 1: being with them, and when they treed, the closer we got,
Speaker 1: the more excited they got. The real action started as
Speaker 1: soon as the first shot rang out, And if we
Speaker 1: didn't get the squirrel on the first shot, or the
Speaker 1: squirrel took off on our approached, the dogs would lose
Speaker 1: their minds trying to be the first one to show
Speaker 1: us what tree he ran to. It was a bona
Speaker 1: fide partnership and they knew it. They didn't get to
Speaker 1: eat the squirrel either. They were working for a pat
Speaker 1: on the head, nothing more. The significance of the relationship
Speaker 1: is one that couldn't operate without the other, and we
Speaker 1: each saw the significant role that we both played. The
Speaker 1: dog got a subserviance, and I believe love and loyalty
Speaker 1: as well. Now, if you don't think dogs have the
Speaker 1: power to reason or connect on a deeper level, don't
Speaker 1: make me quotes from Wilson rawls on here about loving
Speaker 1: a coonhand and vice versa. I'll have you all balling
Speaker 1: your eyes out on way to work this morning. Even
Speaker 1: though Where the Red Fern Grows is a work of fiction,
Speaker 1: I have witnessed that fond personally, and I'm sure a
Speaker 1: lot of you have as well. But the relationship that's
Speaker 1: what's significant, maybe even more so than we realize. Just
Speaker 1: this past week, I accidentally left my back gate open
Speaker 1: while doing some chores in the early evening, Wailing. The
Speaker 1: Wonder Hound was inside the house soaking up the ac
Speaker 1: like the rest of the family. After an evening of
Speaker 1: fun and frivolity with the girls, they drifted off to
Speaker 1: the bed while me and the hound watched TV. Around eleven,
Speaker 1: I let him out the back door and went to bed,
Speaker 1: not realizing I left the gate open. When Bailey and
Speaker 1: I left for school the next morning, just like always,
Speaker 1: I go out back and put his food out and
Speaker 1: check his water, and then we make tracks for her school.
Speaker 1: The door leading from the garage to the backyard makes
Speaker 1: a tail squeak at nine times out of ten when
Speaker 1: he hears it, he's on his way to eat his
Speaker 1: breakfast or try to scam his way inside the house.
Speaker 1: Not this morning. I walked over to his doghouse to
Speaker 1: see if he was inside it, and it was a
Speaker 1: real possibility. After all, as I've mentioned before, he has
Speaker 1: his own air conditioning unit in there. I looked back
Speaker 1: toward the gate and my stomach went on. I knocked.
Speaker 1: That's when I realized that I'd forgotten to shut it.
Speaker 1: He'd gotten out before it, and he's not running away.
Speaker 1: He's just doing what a socialized coonhound does. He goes
Speaker 1: hunting and visiting the neighbors. He usually stops by the
Speaker 1: local Dollar General store and goes inside for a treat.
Speaker 1: I kid you not. A couple of years ago he
Speaker 1: did that, and the lady that was working there gave
Speaker 1: him a snack and called the number that was on
Speaker 1: his collar. Twice. A couple months later, he did the
Speaker 1: same thing, and luckily the same lady was there and
Speaker 1: hemmed him up, gave him a bite of something to eat,
Speaker 1: and called us. Now, I'm confident that clown slipped the
Speaker 1: bonds of the backyard because he was feeling the night
Speaker 1: package so down the road he went to the Dollar
Speaker 1: General for a little snackrel. But those times were different
Speaker 1: because he'd only been gone a short while, maybe even
Speaker 1: a few minutes, when someone called. This time, he'd been
Speaker 1: gone all night. There's no telling where he could be.
Speaker 1: I've seen him cover twenty miles in the night when
Speaker 1: coon hunting in three or four hours. In eight plus hours,
Speaker 1: he could have been a long way away from home,
Speaker 1: or worse yet, run over somewhere on the highway. I
Speaker 1: called Alexis, who was already at work, and told her
Speaker 1: what happened, and Bailey and I made a loop through
Speaker 1: the neighborhood just in case we might see him, and
Speaker 1: we didn't. As I was turning onto the highway, I
Speaker 1: was praying we wouldn't find him laying on the shoulder
Speaker 1: along the way, and my phone rang with a number
Speaker 1: I didn't recognize. Sweet lady's voice said, are you missing
Speaker 1: a four legged friend? Oh? Yes, ma'am, I am. She
Speaker 1: told me where she lived in Bailey, and I little
Speaker 1: shuck headed in that direction. As far as I knew,
Speaker 1: he'd been gone eight hours, and in that span of
Speaker 1: time he'd managed to be found less than three quarters
Speaker 1: of a mile from my house. When I got there,
Speaker 1: he was soaking, wet, muddy from one end to the other,
Speaker 1: and had been apparently rambling all night somewhere, just doing
Speaker 1: what coonhounds do at night. Now was he on his
Speaker 1: way back home when the lady called him over to
Speaker 1: her and looked at his collar, and called me. I
Speaker 1: have no idea. I'd like to think that he would
Speaker 1: come home. You hear those stories about dogs crossing the
Speaker 1: country to find their family, so I'd like to think
Speaker 1: this knucklehead would do the same. But whether he was
Speaker 1: or not is not the point of my story. The
Speaker 1: thought of not having him was beyond what I could
Speaker 1: have imagined. It made me wonder just how I pooring
Speaker 1: this dang dog was, and what my dad would have said. Now,
Speaker 1: my dad's work truck, he had an eight track player
Speaker 1: and a black case that held a number of eight
Speaker 1: track tapes. You youngsters have to google that if you
Speaker 1: don't know what an eight track is. I ain't gonna
Speaker 1: explain it to you anyway. I can see that case
Speaker 1: right now in the contents, and I bet I could
Speaker 1: tell you just about in what order they were in
Speaker 1: Whalon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Gary Stewart, Charlie Pride, Conway, Twitty,
Speaker 1: Moe Bandy, and Jim Reeves, just to name a few.
Speaker 1: Jim Reeves he spelled his name r ee v e s.
Speaker 1: That's the generic spelling as we call it. But he
Speaker 1: had a song called the Blizzard, and it was written
Speaker 1: by the Great Harlan Howard and released in nineteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: and the song the singer is trying to get home
Speaker 1: to his wife mary Anne, and he's describing the trials
Speaker 1: and the tribulations he faces along the way with a
Speaker 1: blizzard and the fact that his horse Dan is lame
Speaker 1: and struggling to make it. Starts out that there's still
Speaker 1: seven miles from Marianne, and he sings about the cold
Speaker 1: blowing snow. Then five miles from Marianne and he sings
Speaker 1: about the hot biscuits he figures that are waiting on him.
Speaker 1: Then three miles from Marianne. Then one hundred yards away.
Speaker 1: Old Dan can't go any further, so they bed down
Speaker 1: for the night, the cowboy and I wanting to leave
Speaker 1: his horse, and they both perish in the cold. Found
Speaker 1: the next morning froze in just one hundred yards from Marianne.
Speaker 1: I asked my dad when I was a little boy,
Speaker 1: after we listened and sang along with that song, if
Speaker 1: he'd have stayed with old Buck, our buckskin horse like
Speaker 1: the cowboy of the song. He said no, And Jim
Speaker 1: Reeves wouldn't have stayed with dead if Marianne could have
Speaker 1: fixed biscuits worth of dern. That's probably true, But I'll
Speaker 1: tell you this. I've seen my daddy cry only three times,
Speaker 1: and one of them was when he told me our
Speaker 1: squirrel dog, Peanut, had passed away. Now, I've talked about
Speaker 1: Peanut before and would usually describe him as my hairy
Speaker 1: little brother and my dad's favorite son. I never said
Speaker 1: that to my dad because I was always scared he
Speaker 1: would agreed with me. But fast forward a generation or two,
Speaker 1: and the last squirrel dog my dad had that was
Speaker 1: as close to Peanut's ability was named Buck. Now, I
Speaker 1: like Peanut. He was a mountain cerr and the heck
Speaker 1: of a squirrel dog. But my dad was from an
Speaker 1: area where dogs stayed outside, and he gave me and
Speaker 1: anyone else fits about having a dog in the house.
Speaker 1: Dogs belonged outside period. Here was a guy who wouldn't
Speaker 1: have braved the blowing snow for his horror because of
Speaker 1: a pan of warm biscuits, and had a hard and
Speaker 1: fast rule of no dogs in the house. And yet
Speaker 1: on numerous occasions my brother would stop by unannounced and
Speaker 1: catch them both asleep in the recliner. Dad reared back
Speaker 1: with his fingers interlaced across the belly of his overalls
Speaker 1: and Buck curled up on the footstool, surprised by my brother.
Speaker 1: Daddy would say, Buck, what are you doing in this house?
Speaker 1: Get out of here, my brother holding screen door open
Speaker 1: as Buck trotted out of the house. I tell you
Speaker 1: that story to emphasize the bond that comes from the
Speaker 1: intimacy of relationship between man and dog. There's some next
Speaker 1: level signs going on here that no one can map
Speaker 1: out scientifically beyond carbon dating and DNA. Both are interesting
Speaker 1: documentations of origin and history, but when it comes down
Speaker 1: to it, who cares? Not me? Interesting for sure, but
Speaker 1: I don't care if it started fifteen thousand years ago
Speaker 1: for fifteen minutes. If it can change the outlook at
Speaker 1: my dad, you could get a hold of anyone. The
Speaker 1: joy I and my family received from my four legged
Speaker 1: friend as the lady down the road calling is beyond
Speaker 1: my understanding. My question at the beginning was how and
Speaker 1: why does an animal get to play such an important
Speaker 1: role in our lives. There's so many things to look at,
Speaker 1: and there are folks out there that have dogs that
Speaker 1: can't hunt, lick, and they love them just the same
Speaker 1: as I do. Mine coincidence, I don't think so them.
Speaker 1: It is my strong belief that the dogs are a
Speaker 1: gift from Heaven that love us unconditionally, and they're here
Speaker 1: to sudden example. We're supposed to be unconditional. Love is
Speaker 1: a chore, something we as humans have to work on
Speaker 1: every day. I know my wife loves me beyond measure.
Speaker 1: I also know there are times when she probably wonders
Speaker 1: why something to be said for love and devotion and
Speaker 1: a living, breathing example of each as a dog expends
Speaker 1: his whole life just waiting for you to come home.
Speaker 1: Thank y'all so much for listening. Clay and I appreciate
Speaker 1: each and every one of you who do, and invite
Speaker 1: you to share it with someone that you might think
Speaker 1: would enjoy it as well. Leaving reviews helps get our
Speaker 1: shows in front of others who might like them, and
Speaker 1: I think those of you taking the time to drop
Speaker 1: a few lines it really makes a difference. Don't forget
Speaker 1: if you've got a good story to share about hunting, fishing,
Speaker 1: dogs outdoors are just good old country living or city
Speaker 1: living for that matter, send them in to me at
Speaker 1: my tcl story for meadeater dot com until next week.
Speaker 1: This is Brent Reeves signing off. Y'all be careful.