The
last thing I ever thought I would own was a coonhound. I had heard of them, but
had an archaic view of them as a southern redneck thing. Definitely not something
for northwestern Pennsylvania. Well! Patches has changed all that. My daughter
saw the ad in the local paper for free coonhound puppies. She was looking for
a dog to guard her horse barn as we had had several break-ins. nothing had been
stolen but we didn't want unwanted intruders in the barn. Her argument was that
the coonhound had a very distinctive howl and it would be easy to hear it. I argued,
even made a few redneck jokes but to no avail. We went to look at the pups and
I kept saying we were only looking. Yep! The lady had had eleven puppies. Her
dog had been accidentally bred while someone had been caring for it for her. The
mother was a registered treeing walker. I knew nothing of them but she was a nice
looking dog and was very friendly. We were told that the father was a registered
bluetick. I knew that they had the special coats that were mottled.(I was corrected
on this and now know it's ticking). All the puppies were so sweet. When we got
there she had nine of them left; 2 males and
7 females. One of the females was almost black with ticking and had these big
blue eyes. She wouldn't leave me alone. I took her home. And she seemed to instantly
bond with me. That night she slept with me and I felt sorry for her leaving all
her siblings that she slept under the covers. She still does.
Patches, as she is called
is now almost 5 months old. She is very spoiled and very loved. Having a coonhound
is certainly different. We have 3 other dogs: 2 spayed 5yr old mix breeds that
we rescued from an abusive home and an 11yr old springer spaniel. Bubba, the
spaniel tries to stay away from patches as she has too much energy for him.
Gabby and Brandie play with her but she is awfully rough at times. And loud.
It was fun listening to her learn to bark and howl. Now she has a very deep
voice that is getting more musical with age.
We
were warned about cats but Patches seems to understand that our cats are part
of the family. She harasses them but has not tried to be too mean to them. The
only incident that we had had so far was near Christmas. The one cat had the
nerve to swat her and she treed him in the Christmas tree. She was so proud
of herself baying at him. I really was at a loss for what to do. Praise her
for learning her skill or punish her for single handedly destroying over 20yrs
of collected tree decorations. It was a scene that cried out for a camera. The
cat was halfway up the tree and Patches was baying at him with her tail going
full force as proud as can be. Meanwhile tinsle and balls were flying everywhere.
Needless to say we spent Christmas with a very lightly decorated ragged tree.
Recently Patches had
her latest adventure. She has gone truck driving. My husband drives truck and
I went with him. Patches and I have bonded to the point where She will mope
and totally misbehave if I leave her too long so she went with us. She wasn't
too sure of the truck and at first we had to carry her in and out. But she soon
leaned and the trip got easier. She loved the truckstops and the long walks
in new territory. But trust me, no one parks close to you when you have a coonhound
in the truck. Whenever we went into the truckstop for dinner or anything else,
she howled. She howled when we came back. I think out of joy to see us. In Georgia
we stopped at a park zone so my husband could catch a quick nap. It was about
3am. I sat in the cab reading while my husband slept and Patches sat with me.
There was a truck parked in front of us but I didn't really pay too much attention
to it. I was deep in my book when Patches suddenly sat up. I knew she had seen
something. The poor driver of the truck in front of us just happened to be passing
close by our truck. At 3am in a rest area the last thing you expect is a coonhound.
Patches let loose with her howl and the poor guy jumped so high I thought he
was going to hit the mirrors with his head. I had to hold back my laughter as
he literally ran for his truck.
As you can see, we have
had a good many adventures with our dog. Our neighbor owns two coonhounds and
does hunt. He has offered to take my two kids, Patches and me with him. He says
that she should learn from the older dogs and he feels that she could make a
nice hunter. But I have my doubts. A dog who has a bedtime of 9:30pm and has
to see Santa at Christmas time might have a hard time coonhunting.
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