One of my friends on Facebook made a really good observation about how much hunters care for their dogs. When I used to work at the Mountain Heritage Center, I talked about how someone stole two dogs from a friend of David’s thinking they were rescuing the dogs from an abusive owner. A lot of people think that these hunting dogs are mistreated but nothing could be further from the truth. We know people that have spent thousands of dollars in vet bills taking care of a dog that was hurt by a bear or boar. We’ve also known people who actually risked their lives rescuing their dogs from a bear. Mr. Logan, who had my mother Hannah and sold me to David, went into a hole to get one of his dogs away from a bear. That takes a lot of courage to do something like that because an angry bear is a mighty dangerous animal. Someone that doesn’t care a lot about their dog would never do something like that. All of the hunters that we know firmly believe that if their dogs are willing to go all out for them — they are willing to go all out for their dogs.
While these hunting dogs may not curl up by the fire in the evening they are well cared for, well fed and highly respected by their owners. Around this place, we’ve always felt that dogs do better when they have something to do other than being cute. I’m not the greatest hunting hound in the world but I do enjoy getting out after a coon every once-in-a-while. My main job is going out and doing programs with Mr. Bob Plott where we talk about Plott hounds and hunting.
Sometimes David and I will go to a school or library and do kind of the same thing but our main thing is talking about the necessity of GOOD hunters. Good hunters are the only kind we know and they obey all the game rules and as a result there are more bear here in the mountains than there has ever been. The thing we try and educate people about is that if bears don’t fear humans and dogs it’s not going to be too long before that cute little, fluffy pet is going to be a snack for old bruin. The other thing we try and talk to people about is to LEAVE THE TRACKING COLLARS ON THE DOG! Lately we’ve been hearing about people actually shooting hunting dogs that cross people’s property. That’s just disgusting since hunting hounds have no interest in aggression to humans or their pets. I don’t even know how to comment on something like that so I guess I’ll say no more and save it for a later post.
Before I came to live with David and Jeannette, chickens were getting killed pretty regularly by coons. Since I’ve been here, I’ve been able to put the coons on the run and we haven’t lost any more chickens. I think Jeannette is kinda mad at me for stealing eggs but I don’t have any willpower when it comes to free range, organic eggs. David has been putting this funny collar on me lately and I know what that means if I go in the chicken yard — ZAP!!! Guess I’m going to have to take eggs off the diet and concentrate on the Black Gold.
Nannie
