Redneck

My children were still fairly small when it happened. I think the oldest was in 2nd grade.

My husband brought home a dog. It was a little red hound.

Its name was Redneck.

Redneck was on the small side of a medium sized dog. His coat was reddish and the hair was sort of long.

The kids immediately loved him. And he loved them.

He liked to play with the kids and slept in their room. Running was his favorite thing to do. He was very fast.

The one thing we had a problem with was him chasing cars. It was not until I saw him chasing a motorcycle that I realized he was not trying to catch it or bite the rider. Redneck was racing the motorcycle.

He always stayed on the sidewalk, not in the street. When he got to a fence a couple of houses away he would just stop. The race was over.

Redneck did not just bark. He would start out barking but it turned into baying every time. He sounded like a coon dog that had its prey cornered.

Redneck would disappear occasionally.  There was a junkyard close by and there would be a new litter of little red puppies.

Then one day he disappeared and did not come home. We heard a rumor that the owner of the junkyard had shot and killed Redneck. We have no proof that is true. But Redneck is gone.