Our sons still like to make fun of me regarding
my Beagles. I kept a pack of Beagles for rabbit hunting for five years while we
lived in Clinton, Mississippi. The boys sure enjoyed hunting rabbits with me
and some friends during that time, but now they don’t talk about rabbit hunting
together. They just like to poke fun at Dad—and that’s OK with me as I usually
laugh with them.
They like to tell about how I would get up in
the middle of the night when the Beagles started barking and annoying the
neighbors. I would turn the water hose on and spray the dogs down real good to
make them quit howling. It worked. I think their favorite story is about one of
my methods for training the dogs not to run deer. Jumping deer and running deer
while on a rabbit hunt is the good rabbit dog’s nemesis. No serious rabbit dog
owner wants to keep a dog that chases deer, so dog owners go to great lengths
to break that nasty habit.
One of my remedies for a dog that chases deer
was to get a deer leg, put it in a barrel with the dog, close the lid and roll
it down a steep hill. The dog would associate this uncomfortable ride down the
hill with deer and would not be anxious to run deer again. It worked. Now
someone out there is ready to report me to the animal rights people!
The boys and some of their high school friends
would often call my dogs “stupid.” That I did not like because I thought my
dogs were smarter than some of their friends. They enjoyed making fun of one
particular Beagle named “Bila”—that name comes from the language we spoke in
Burkina Faso and it means “son” or literally “son of.” He was actually my
best “jump” dog, but he did like to chase deer.
One day my Dad went with me to run the dogs. We
enjoyed following the dogs through the bushes and brambles as they jumped
rabbits and ran them right back to us—oh, we did not have guns. We just enjoyed
experiencing the thrill of the chase. When it was time to load the dogs in the
back of the pickup, all of them came back except Bila. He had decided to chase
a deer, so I took off after him. It took me about 20 minutes to find him, and I
was angry.
I was jerking the leash and pulling Bila through
the briars. He would get tangled and I would just pull harder, not caring that I
was stretching his neck while pulling hard on the leash. Bila was trailing me,
and I was not looking behind me. I gave a hard jerk on the leash, not knowing
that the leash was wrapped around a dead standing tree. These trees are called
“widow makers” because many of them have fallen on a man in the woods and made
his wife a widow.
This one was apparently ready to fall, as it
fell and struck the back of my head. It knocked me out, and the next thing I
knew was Bila licking me on the cheek. I don’t know how long I was out, but
Bila may have saved my life. I was bleeding profusely from a head wound, and if
Bila had not awakened me…
I put pressure on my wound, and Bila followed me
back to the pickup where my Dad was anxiously waiting on me. He drove me to the
emergency room where I was sewn up and released. I was grateful to Bila for
awakening me.
Writing this story down for the first time
prompts me to think about how we are quick to criticize or form an opinion
before we know all the facts. I am guilty, and I know that many people are like
me in that respect, so let’s be careful not to call another man’s dog stupid
without knowing all the facts. My stupid dog may have saved my life!
