Dog Gone
by Alex McRae

Their names were Bum and Trouble. And as far as my Aunt Sallie and Uncle Roy were concerned, they weren't just a pair of liverspotted bird dogs. They were family.

They were something else, too. They were fishing buddies.

Uncle Roy grew up in the heart of Louisiana Cajun country. He learned to hunt and fishbefore he learned his ABCs. He and Aunt Sallie married in 1931, and moved to Savannah, where Uncle Roy worked at the Dixie Crystals sugar refinery.

Uncle Roy didn't have as much time to fishand hunt as before, but he always kept a pair of bird dogs in the back yard, just in case. The couple before Bum and Trouble were named Trial and Tribulation.

Right before World War II began, my aunt and uncle saw an opportunity they couldn't resist. They hated debt but took a chance that somehow they could pay back a $600 loan for an acre of land on the South Carolina coast just across from Hilton Head Island. They scrimped and saved and did it.

After the war, they built a fishing hut and later a modest home right on the water. They were there every weekend and vacation. The place drew plenty of visiting relatives, including my folks and me.

Uncle Roy hunted the nearby woods and fields, but he mostly enjoyed the salt water fishing, which went on almost daily from dawn to dark.

It wasn't long before the bird dogs got a taste for fishing, too.

When a boat pulled up with the day's catch, Bum and Trouble went crazy. We'd toss them a few fish, and they'd carry them around like trophies until it was time to hose the fishoff and fry them up.

The dogs also developed into great crabbers.

The place included a set of stone steps from the yard to the water. When the tide came in, so did the crabs. It was easy to walk down the steps with a scoop net and snag half a bushel of crabs in just minutes. The dogs went along and soon figured out how to catch a crab without a net.

Bum was the best. When he saw a crab crawling by, he stuck his snout in the water and waited for a crab to latch on. Then he slung the crab onto the shore and went chasing after it. If Bum beat us to the crab, he got to eat it.

Watching Bum and Trouble "fish" was a highlight of every visit. No one was ever jealous of their talent.

All dogs aren't so lucky.

Slobodan Paparelli fishes for a living on the Adriatic Sea. For years, he was considered as good as any man with a net and a boat.

But recently, his luck changed. Slobodan was catching fewer and fewer fish. However, his Irish Setter, Lipi, was not.

In fact, Lipi was doing great. She went out in the boat every day with Slobodan. While her master drug in empty nets, Lipi leaped overboard and caught dozens of fish in her teeth, to Slobodan's dismay and to the delight of the other fishermen.

The last straw, according to Ananova News Service, came when Slobodan reeled a 15-pounder up to the boat only to see the line snap and the fish plop back into the sea. Lipi dove in, caught the fish and swam back to shore with her prize.

Slobodan couldn't take it anymore. He sold the setter.

"The other fishermen were all laughing at me," Slobodan said. "I have no choice but to sell the dog because it keeps humiliating me."

Glad uncle Roy wasn't there. He'd have sold Slobodan and kept the dog. Come to think of it, so would I.

(Send your e-mail comments to: alex@newnan. com)(Send your e-mail comments to: alex@newnan. com)