I am a Carolina Dog, a breed that
long ago owned Native American people. We were designed by natural selection to be so intelligent and physically superior that we survived without humans. My great-grandfather was caught from the wild. I can offer advice based on the natural instincts and abilities of wild dogs. My human and I have had lots of training classes and other experiences. Some humans call themselves Mom or Dad of their dog, but I call my human, tongue in cheek, Boss. Much as I love her, I admit she has many of the same odd notions as most humans, so I can relate to other dogs with problem humans. If I can’t help, at least I can offer sympathy, and we can have fun talking about our amazing humans. Please send your questions! Bammy, 280 Pond Rd. Newcastle, ME 04553, or email: askbammy@ tidewater.net This is a letter to my pen-pal Eddie Jack Russell Terrier. Dear Eddie, I haven’t heard from you for a while. I hope city life in the winter isn’t too boring. There’s always a lot going on around here.
Ask Bammy An Advice Column for Dogs by a Dog
You might say it’s always hunting season. It’s not easy, but I am usually able to coax Boss out for a daily walk. The snow hasn’t been too bad this winter. You know, as a southern gentleman, it’s not my favorite thing. My pack-mate Pookah loves it. Can you imagine lying down in cold snow, rolling onto your back and squirming around? I roll on things that smell
good, but snow just smells cold. What’s the point? Yesterday I went hunting. I smelled mouse and dashed to the composted manure pile. I kept pulling pieces of tarp off the pile, but I couldn’t get back fast enough to catch the mouse. I often give up on chasing mice, but when I can actually see one …! Eventually, I caught it. Boss didn’t seem to be impressed and even grumbled about my tearing the tarp. She usually likes me to catch mice. Why not this time? I made another catch that Boss likes a lot. She named it “Antler;” and I love it so much that I learned its name in one day! We were walking in the snow in a wonderful place where there are lots of wild smells. Sometimes I give a partridge or rabbit a little run, but I can’t catch those, so it’s just the principle of the thing. This trophy is not really an animal, but it smells like one. I smelled a deer under the snow, so I dug it up. It smells like a deer, but it just looks like a stick with branches, and it’s harder and heavier than any stick could be. Really hard to pick up and carry. I didn’t dare put it down where someone else might get it. I started home without waiting for
Boss. She kept calling me, and she sounded so worried that I went back to show her what I had. She said I was good, so I ran home and put Antler on the doorstep where I thought it would be safe. Then I went back to walk with Boss and make sure she got home okay. She got all lovey, but what did she expect? Of course, I wouldn’t leave her alone out in the woods! She doesn’t usually let me keep my trophies, but she let me bring this one right in on the rug, and sometimes she even plays with it herself. I haven’t seen her chew on it, but she holds it in her paws and looks at it. Well, Eddie, write me when you have time. How’s your new cave? Have you kept the raccoons away from the dumpster? Barked at any unusual traffic lately? I’d love to know how you and your two and four footed packmates are getting along. Keep on barking, Bammy The Ask Bammy column is intended for humor and entertainment. If your dog has behavioral issues please contact a veterinarian or professional trainer.
SHEDS from page 5 Chase recalled a trip when he and that best friend, Rich, went on a shed expedition with their dogs. Ruger was 3 and Rich’s dog, Turtle, was 6-months-old (Turtle is Ruger’s brother from another litter). They hit an unseasonable snowfall, but it was expected that temps would warm up for shed hunting. Chase took Ruger out in the snow for the heck of it. The remarkable Lab led him to his largest moose antler find ever--it was buried under the snow, and he scented it from over 300 yards away (a football field is 120 yards). For Chase, shed hunting is about the bonding experience with his dog. When the season is done, that connection is still there. “Even in the summer, when we’re working in the garden, [Ruger] knows what we did. I love that.” Chase indicated that he may take him hunting this spring, but he’s not going to push the now 10-year-old Lab. “I’m kind of leaving it up to him…if he wants to go, great. If he’s tired, you know what, ‘you don’t have to do it anymore, bud…you’ve done it.’” Of course, that doesn’t mean that this dog-lover will give up this hobby that he’s so passionate about. He’s training Ruger’s grandson, the “smart and loving” 2-year-old Canon, so he can take over his grandpa’s role when he retires. “Really the story to me is the interaction between the human and the dog, being in the woods… and sharing that one-on-one experience that no one else sees.” Watch this National Geographic video that captures a moose shedding an antler at youtube.com/watch?v=pKCgWwWk1KY. To see Colin Chase’s stunning photograpy, visit Appleton Images at facebook.com/appletonimages.
March 2018
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