Sunday, November 23, 1997
Find dog, get $2,500
By Ken Ellsworth / Abilene Reporter-News
ALBANY -- Buddy Smith is singing the blues, and not just because
he is from Memphis, Tenn., the location of Beale Street.
He is singing the blues because somewhere around Albany he
thinks a good dog is running loose and lost. Smith wants the dog
back so bad he is offering a big, fat reward of $2,500 for the
dog, no questions asked.
"Yeah, I think he is probably still out there," Smith
said of the English setter that got away from him on the 4M Ranch
in mid-September. The 4M Ranch is between Abilene and Albany.
I called Smith Friday after I saw his ad in this paper advertising
the $2,500 reward and I have never heard anyone sound quite so
blue over the phone about a dog.
"The shame of it is, he's not even my dog," Smith
said.
He said he is a dog trainer and has been one for 30 years.
Rock, that is the lost dog's name, was one of 10 dogs he had taken
to the 4M Ranch to train to hunt quail.
On the seventh day of training, Rock, took off and disappeared.
"I was training him for a real nice fellow, an insurance
man in Alabama, a real nice fellow who always pays his bills and
is real sincere, you know, and who I never even met, just talked
to on the phone, you know what I mean?" Smith said.
It took two whole weeks after Rock disappeared for Smith to
get up the courage to call that insurance man and tell him that
Rock was gone.
"He was real nice. He said, 'That's all right, Buddy,
I know just how you feel. I'm in the insurance business and I've
had to call a lot of people with bad news and I didn't want to
call them either.' "
That made Smith feel better, but it must at the same time have
made him feel worse because you always feel more sorry when a
bad thing happens to a good, understanding person.
Anyway, Smith stayed on the ranch 10 more days just looking
for Rock after the animal ran off.
"I was on every part of that ranch, but I never saw him,"
Smith said. "We think he went toward Albany."
Rock is two years old, 45-50 pounds, with long orange and white
hair.
"Mostly white," Smith said.
In addition, Rock is wearing a red training collar with an
antenna attached to it. You should be able to see the red collar
from a distance, Smith said. There is a tag on the collar, also,
that bears the name of the dog, Smith's name, and Smith's phone
number.
The upsetting thing, besides losing a dog that you do not own,
Smith said, is that Rock was such a good dog.
"In all the years I've been training dogs, I don't think
I've ever had one with such good field trial potential as this
one."
Good field trial dogs, Smith said, are literally worth thousands
of dollars.
I asked Smith what made him think Rock still survived.
"Well I think if he got hit by a car, someone would look
at the collar and probably call me. And I've had dogs lost for
30 days, and I've got them back and they were all right. They
survive. I've never heard of one actually catching wild game,
though. What they'll do is come up to the ranches and the farms
at night and find something to eat," he said.
When a dog is lose for a few days, Smith said, it changes.
"They get to the point that they get spooked by people
and everything. They try to stay away from people," Smith
said. "But if you see Rock and call his name, that might
give him a little confidence. But if somebody makes a good sighting
and gives me a call I'll come right back out there and try to
find him."
Since running his ad last Sunday, Smith said he has only one
response.
"A lady called. She was real nice and everything, and
said she thought she saw the dog somewhere between Throckmorton
and Albany, but she didn't know precisely where she was. But from
her description, I'd say it was Rock."
So, it is deer season, but dog hunting sounds unusually profitable
right now. You could also cheer up a very blue Memphis man.
If you see Rock, please call Buddy Smith at (901) 853-8376.
This column covers the cities and communities of this part
of West Texas. To contact Ken Ellsworth, call (800) 588-6397 or
(915) 676-6777, or write to P.O. Box 30, Abilene, TX 79604.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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