enoough is enough

Another piece for the dog art show - and maybe not a good idea. Sometimes, I have found that some dog folk have scant humor when it comes to depicting the canine in a less than flattering light. I have "beagled" many a time with my old Dad. He loved to hear them bay. The little terrier is a nod to the wire fox we had when I was a girl = though she never saw a field or rabbit for that matter. Dad would never kill the rabbit and the beagles were so sweet they never could kill a thing. he just loved the music they made, the tramp in the fields and setting them onto a likely trail in the sedge and furze. He was a talented draftsman and a romantic. he found an old steer horn and carved a running beagle (which I copied in this little panel) and carved all the names of the Beagles he hunted over the years - Bess, Major, Bo, Belle and Bonny. He found a brass mouthpiece to set in the horn and carved his name next to theirs. Next to his name he put " W. S. His Horn". He would call the hounds in with it when it was time to go home. If he had the money, and lived in a different age for that matter, he would have been part of a hunt club. One of his favorite books was an account of the Pytchley Hunt. I have it but it is in fragments - several chapters are missing. Still it is fun to read all about the Masters, the horses and the dogs. Real John Peel stuff. hard to look at a rabbity bit of countryside - especially in the Autumn on a moist chilly day - and not imagine him just over the hill following Bo and Bonny through the honey colored grass. Then see him turn to you when the hounds gave voice and say with never ending delight -"listen girl, they've got one - just listen."