All About Bubba.

The "Bubba Poll" is now closed. For those waiting breathlessly for the answer... It's Georgia. That's right, Georgia. And not the one over there in the old Soviet Union.. the one in the American South. Bubba is an
Appalachian Corn Hound;or rather he's descended from the Corn Hounds, which were first created in the North Georgia mountains at the turn of the last century by mountain men who needed sturdy guard animals to protect their "corn likker" stills. Borrowing heavily from the French Great Pyrenees, for size, American Pitbulls for tenacity, and an occasional greyhound for speed in pursuing the hated "Revenoors" out of the mountains, these ingenius mountain dwellers produced a hound whose only vice was a taste for fine French wines and cognacs. Alas, this was to lead to the ultimate demise of the breed, even though it guaranteed that they would stay out of the moonshine. Because of their expensive tastes, these poor hill folk were unable to afford to keep this handsome dog. Additionally, the Corn Hound was able to somehow maintain beautiful strong, white teeth throughout their lifespans, which led to poor self-esteem among the very people that created them.

The entire population was, therefore, shipped off to Texas during the Great Depression, where the somewhat-wealthy Sheep Barons were able employ them in their current capacity, as sheep guarding dogs. So that's Bubba's story.. so rare, you won't even find it in Wikipedia!

And not only that, but... what?
What's that?
What's today's date, you say?

Why.. It's April Fool's Day.

And Bubba's an Akbash. From Turkey.
Congratulations to all who got it right. Texas, Todd?? ;)

Mission Accomplished.

Unlike other big lies you've heard, using the above statement.. I actually made it down to LaMarque, Texas last night to shoot some real racing at the Gulf Greyhound Park. I mentioned in a previous post that a reader had asked if I would take some pictures of his dogs if I was ever in the area. We were... and I did. And won a couple of bucks in the process! But not on the race pictured below...

...that's "PDX Carnage" in the number 4 blanket; one of the dogs I was there to shoot. Unfortunately, Carnage wasn't anywhere near the front when I snapped this, but I think it's pretty indicative of the intensity of the sport nevertheless. The reader's other dog, "PDX Blackie", won it's race.

I also met up with our friend, Kelly, who had a dog, "C Ya Tag Heuer",

running in a later race. Kelly was invaluable in helping spot the dogs I had to shoot... and, she bought me a Shiner Bock. Way to go Kelly! Lots of images available for viewing at the Shot On Site website.

Kelly, and her friend, Tammy, also reminded me numerous times as I left, to "drive safe" on my 100+ mile trip back to the campground. Ha! Little do they know...

...about my history of driving in Houston. I wonder if I should tell the story here.. hmmmm.. it involves my brother, Mark, and his Toyota, my cousin and her husband, a football game, and most importantly, psychotropic mushrooms, big draft beers, and, yeccch!, Andre Cold Duck, (did I mention the UCLA Song Girls?). What do y'all think? Want to hear the story?

Images ©2007 Shot On Site

Must Mean it's Almost April...

©Shot On Site

Age Before Beauty

You know you might be the youngest people in the campground when...

Poll Closing.

The "Mandatory Spay/Neuter, Good or Bad?" poll is now closed. Readers voted 84% to 16% (19 votes), that these laws are a bad idea. That's probably within a few points or two of the general population's views. I wonder if our legislators know. Someone should tell them.

It was actually worse than that.. because, remember, that Margaret voted "yes" by accident.. probably because I made the answers "no/yes" instead of the anticipated "yes/no". I learned my lesson... hope Margaret did, too. Wonder who the other "yes" votes were? Must'a come here by accident.LOL

Grindhouse.

If the TV trailers aren't enough to make you want to see Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's homage to exploitation movies of the 50's and 60's, then this review should do it. We were crackin' up!

WARNING: Mature readers only... no kids!

Bubba.

This is Bubba. Bubba lives across the road from Endgate Ranch, with a couple of girlfriends. Bubba and his girlfriends have a job to do, and they take it seriously. Their job is to guard a couple hundred sheep, lambs, goats and kids from the likes of me and other, more dangerous predators.

Since you all seem to like games so much, we're going to play another:

When I first spotted one of Bubba's girlfriends the other day, she was flying across the field towards the fence by the road I was driving up.. at a rate of speed that defied her size. Not surprising, as my reading up on this breed tells me that they were probably bred from a Mastiff like breed and a "native sighthound". That's a hint, folks. Anyway, he's very handsome, and actually quite friendly- as long as you don't have nefarious designs on his charges.