I keep talking about the Big Dogs - what's up with that?

My dad was from deep East Texas and I grew up in Beaumont so I heard a lot of old country sayings that were used to enhance or embellish a story, situation or expression.

Hunting dogs and the tradition of hunting with dogs is as old as the Deep South itself. In many places in Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas, this age old tradition is still alive and well. It is still legal to run deer with dogs in many areas of the South and wild hog hunting with dogs has become a major element in the hunting population as the number of hogs have multiplied.

In the old days, a good hunting dog was often ranked up there with a good horse and dare I say it ..... a good wife.

The hunting dogs of years past could be seen lazing around on the wraparound porches of the houses of the South.

The dogs were separated roughly into 3 classifications - the pups, the bitches (female dogs that were pregnant or nursing) and the mature and experienced hunting dogs (the Big Dogs!)

All the dogs would lay on the porch during the heat of the day or when they weren't hunting.... but before the hunt began, the dog handlers would go up on the porch and leash up the dogs that were going on the hunt (the Big Dogs) while leaving the pups and the female dogs that were nursing back on the porch, hence the old deep South saying.....

Are you gonna stay on the porch with the pups and the bitches..... or are you gonna run with the Big Dogs?

The Big Dogs are the biggest, baddest, meanest dogs in the pack that will literally run themselves to death or fight themselves to death (in the case of hog dogs) before they give up.

OK, that's the story.

Now here are my Big Dogs - see next post!