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When I was growing up, dogs were very important to my family, and they still are, I have 4 dogs myself, if Ilived in the country I probably would have 24!! Hopefully someday real soon I will!!

I really can’t pin-point one particular Dog out of the bundle that I or my family have had, to be really honest, each and every one of them had their own little personalities and querks that I loved and appreciated.

There is this one though that I find myself thinking about quite alot. Iwas given a female Beagle pup when I was 14, she was a holy terror on rabbits, I would put her in the top 5 of the best Beagles that I have had throughout the years. I knew I had something good in this dog, she was the dog that was going to start a new line of Beagles that would relentlesly create problems for the “Rabbits of Pincherry”. I tried keeping an eye on her cycles, as much as a 14 year old could, but inevetably Football and Salmon Season had the best of my eye at that time of year. Before I knew it “Brownie” was pregnant….Iwas devistated. My dad wanted to dispose of the puppies as they were born, there were times when he was raising Labs. that mistakes happened and he would have the Vet. come over and take care of the problem as not to taint the gene pool when the Sire was unknown, well, I wasn’t going to let that happen. At that time Brownie was the only dog our family had in the house, the Labs. were in-kennel and my Dad said it would be alright to have another dog, so I decided to keep one of the puppies and Iwould give the others away. Well time went by and nature took it’s course and it was time for the new arrivals to enter the world. This was exciting to all of us because we had no clue as to what was going to “pop” out of Brownie!! The first pup to come out was still-born, he was a long haired critter, black with brown feet and muzzle, much like a Gordon Setter. The second born was a liver colored Beagle looking thing, my Brother claimed him, he became known as Lightning. The third pup was this long-haired chocolate Lad whom I labled as “Thunder”. The two pups were the joy of the Zipp Household, when they were able to go outside for the first time my Brother and I were like a couple of 6 year-olds, for some reason those two “mutts” were like our own blood, speaking of blood….as Randy and I were watching the two pups we heard the screeching of breaks and a small “THUD”…. BROWNIE WAS TOAST. I think there was a higher power involved with the death of Brownie. As the result of her death we were able to keep both Thunder and Lightning as house-dogs.

Thunder was the most loyal dog that I have had and probably ever will have, he was this half Beagle half Cocker Spaniel ( Cub, my Grandpa Zipps’ dog….had to be) that was the first and only dog to chase and kill Mink!!!! honestly people, Thunder would trail the Mink through the Horton Creek and dig them out of the bank, catch them and kill them!!!! I have it on tape. Thunder was such a laid back dude in the house that my very young cousins would grab him by the ear and literally pull him across the hardwood floor, from one end of the Living Room to the other!! Thunder wouldn’t even whine, he would just wag his tail and take the torture like a man and when it was done he would go outside and piss on my Uncle’s tire!!!

Thunder lived to be 18 years old, when I was 24 years old I was blessed with a beautiful Son, Gunnar. Gunnar was able to spend the first 6 years of his life with Thunder. I have hundreds of pictures of Gunnar and Thunder playing out in my Parents yard, or, of Gunnar following Thunder around in the creek while Thunder was catching Frogs, he’d never kill them, but if Gunnar got ahold of one….well you know. Gunnar is a tough kid, he’s seen a few dogs come and go but he still has a hard time talking about Old Thunder…. I guess as I sit here and type this little piece…. I do to.
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Hooter was saved from a flock of merauding Crows!!!! My buddy Hoppy and I happened to be staying at my parents house one week while they were down-state galavanting or something when a series of events unfolded that I will never forget.
Hop and I were sitting at the dinner table when we noticed a whole boat-load of Crows going over the backyard, there was a mad feverish rush to get to the gun-vault and grab whatever shotguns we could get our 20 year old hands on!!!! After a brief struggle we were out the sliding glass door and down the back steps, shotguns in hand, and the pockets of my sweat-pants bulging with .20 gauge shells and Hoppies shorts were drooped with .12 ga. loads, we were off to kill a mess of Crows!!! As we made our way into the Pine Tree stand, the noise emenating from the flock of Crows was almost deafening. We also noticed that the flock had stopped, we couldn’t see them but they were definately in one spot. Hop and I crept our way deeper into the Pines, the farther we went , the louder it got. As we went toward the middle of the stand where a huge Maple Tree stood, it was real clear where the Crows were, they were going absolutely APE-SHIT. There must have been 100 of those Black Bastards in and at the bottom of the tree. Before I knew it ol’ Hoppy was cutting loose with my Old Mans’ Long Tom….I f I didn’t know that gun was a bolt action I woulda’ swore on a stack of Hustlers that it was a semi-automatic!!!! I joined in on the fun, there were Crows dropping from the Maple, out of the air and off of the ground, the funny thing was that they weren’t leaving. We must have killed 50+ of those things, I was out of shells and so was Hop. The really messed up part of the whole deal was that the remaining Crows were still hanging out within a100 yd. radius of us and that old Maple. One very bold Crow flew between Hop and I and was sitting at the bottom of the tree, we sat there and watched as it would hop to the base and peck at somethig and then hop back, there was something in there that the Crows wanted!!
Hop and I shooed the Crow away and got down on our hands an knees and peered into the hollow base of the Maple, to the amazement of our Powder Burnt eyes, sat tucked int the hollw was an Owl!!! Thats what was driving the Crows crazy.
Not only was it an Owl but a small Screech Owl, probably the one that would scare the living shit out of me as I was leaving my Bow Stand at night!!!! Spooky shit!!!
Hop and I could tell that the ol’ boy was messed up a bit, he wasn’t scared, mabey because he was in shock from the massive Crow attack. I was the only one who was wearing gloves so I reached into the hollow and much to our suprise the Owl didn’t put up a fight, he just latched onto my glove with both feet and held on quite tightly. Ipulled him out and sure as shit would have it, his wing was broke.
We took the ol’ boy back to the house. On our way back the two of us were laughing like hell at the fact of killing 50 Crows and ending up saving the life of a Screech Owl, Hoppy was smart enough to grab a dead Crow to skin and cut up for our new patient to eat.
Neither of us knew how to fix a broken wing for Gods sake….but we’d try and succeed!!!
For the next couple of weeks, “Hooter” as we called him, made a great recovery. About the second week Hoppy and I couldn’t tolerate him in our apartment that we were renting (PARTY PALACE/BACHELOR PAD actually), so I decided to stay at my parents place out in the country and see of Hooter would fly away soon.
My Folks enjoyed the Shit out of Hooter, I would set him out on the deck and he would just sit there and check the Cat out, and vise-versa, neither one had the balls to do anything to each other. Hooter also ate like a Son-of-a- Bitch…. we had all kinds of people picking up road-kill rabbits for him. (By the way, Hooter never ate the Crow, must not have liked dark meat).
Hooter ended up staying out at my Mom and Dads place for another week, they both liked his company I guess, Hooter must have liked theirs because he didn’t fly away!!!

I ended up coming down with the Flu. that following week and my folks were going down-state again, they asked me to stay at the house and watch the Dogs and feed the fire while they were gone, so I did, there is nothing like sitting by a wood-fire when you have the Flu!!!
Hooter was in the habit of going outside around a half-hour before dark and sitting on the deck, then flying out to the edge of the woods where he had a Perch, he’d stay there for the night or somewhere and be back on the porch the next morning.
The second night Hooter didn’t come back, I was sure he felt good enough to try it on his own, so I passed it on to my Folks and to Hoppy that Hooter was on his own!!!! We all congratulated each other on a job well-done and that was that.

Hooter wasn’t seen for a week, nor did I hear him at night for the week I stayed at my Folks place.
I still was feeling like shit warmed over, I was up at about 3:00 am. on Sun. morning with the Runs. I was standing next to the Wood Stove which is next to the back, sliding glass door when I heard something on the deck. I turned the light switch on and….I’ll be go to hell if it wasn’t Hooter!! not only did he come back for a visit but he brought a dead Rabbit with him!!! No shit!!! I slid the door open, poked my head outside and Hooter looked at me those big ol’ black eyes and as if to say thanks, he took off without the Rabbit!!!!

No one saw him again, but once in a while when I would be coming out of the woods in the dark of evening after a Bow-Hunt, OL’ Hoot, or one of his offspring would scare the shit out of me with a long blood curdling screech!!!