Here’s the cool new poster we have here at the Mountain Heritage Center. There’s also a picture of the day that we dedicated the Plott marker in front of Haywood Elementary School on Plott Creek Road on June 8. I couldn’t come to this because I was still with my mama but soon David and I are going to go over to Plott Creek so I can see the marker and have my picture taken there. In fact, here’s a picture of me with my brothers and sisters around the time of the dedication resting after eating and playing. I’m the second one from the left.
I’m really proud to be a Plott hound and be the state dog of North Carolina. It’s really neat when you stop and think about it that I’m living just down the road from where my ancestors first came to the mountains of North Carolina around 1800. Dogs that looked about like me and my siblings used to do just what we’re doing as puppies. But later on we would be called upon to take care of our families on the frontier and would eventually become known as one of the top big game dogs in the world.
If you would like to get one of the posters you can go to the Mountain Heritage Center’s website and find out how to get a poster or a Plott hound tee shirt. Here’s the link: http://www.wcu.edu/2389.asp once you’re there, click on the sales link and also spend a little time looking around at all the things that the Mountain Heritage Center does. I really like being like the “mascot” of the center and getting to work with school kids and grownups too. If you come to Cullowhee, be sure to come by and visit. If I’m working down here that day I would love to meet you!
Here are some pictures that Miss Ashley took the other day when 4th graders from the Blue Ridge School came down to the Mountain Heritage Center for a visit. They were honor roll students and Mrs. Hickman was the teacher. I really liked these students a lot and as you can see, they seemed to like me too!
David told them a little bit more about the Plott hound breed and what kind of dogs we are. We even got asked about what we are like as pets and David told them about what a handful I can be. I’ll bet some of those students are the same way though. Sometimes that happens when you get a smart dog (or student) and we get a little bored, if you don’t find something for us to do– we’ll find it ourselves.
The big picture behind me and Mr. Trevor is the first thing you’ll see when you come through the doors of the Mountain Heritage Center. Mr. Bob Plott is writing an article about the Plott hound exhibit for Wildlife in North Carolina and Mr. Trevor designed the exhibit. Mr. Peter and David helped too. When you do an exhibit like this a lot of people work together to make it happen. I’ll have to say that I think this is the greatest exhibit, EVER!
The dog in the picture behind us is what is known as a maltese Plott because of the blue/gray coloration. While the dog is not brindled (a lot of Plott hounds aren’t) it is still a Plott hound. Legend has it that two of the five original Plott dogs were Weimaraners when they came here in the 18th century and that is why this color sometimes appears. No one knows for sure about what the original dogs really were but it was during this time that Weimaraners first appeared so it is possible. Any way you look at it, the way we came to this country and the fact that we ended up here in the mountains of North Carolina is a perfect example of what Mr. John Jackson calls, “pure Americana” and it’s also a great story!
Nannie
Pictures by Ashley Evans, Courtesy of Office of Public Relations, Western Carolina University.
Alright, we haven’t been talking too much about Plott hounds and hunting lately with the holidays and me in timeout so let’s talk about wild boar hunting. David is going to go boar hunting over in Graham County shortly with an old friend of his. Graham County is where the Russian wild boar first came in to this country in 1912. They put a hunting preserve on Hooper Bald, which is not too far from Robbinsvile, with all kinds of animals not native to this country. After a while the only animals left were the wild boars and they did really well from a survival standpoint and are now all over the mountains.
Boar hunting with hounds is dangerous for both the dogs and the hunters. Mr. Junior used to guide boar hunts over in Graham County and has a lot of stories of dogs being hurt or even killed and a lot of humans climbing up a tree to get out of the way. Mr. Von Plott wouldn’t hunt boar with his Plott hounds saying that: “Boar hunting was a good way to get out of the dog business in a hurry.”
Since the boar doesn’t climb a tree, the dogs have to bay the hog and one of the dogs is specialized as a “catch” dog. And that’s exactly what they do, they catch the hog and hold on for dear life until the hunters get there. A lot of times, the catch dog is not a purebred hound but will have some pit bull cross to give it a stronger bite. Think of what it takes to hang on to an angry hog that weighs more than twice as much as the dog.
Just to give you an idea, here’s a picture of a wild boar mount so you can see of how well armed they are:
They have really sharp tusks (folks out here call them “tushes”) and can use them really well to slash a dog or hunter. The upper tushes are called the “whetters” and the lower tushes are the “cutters.” They keep the cutters sharp by honing them on the whetters and you can’t believe how sharp they are! They can really run fast too and have a lot of endurance so they are quite a big game animal.
Since the wild boar is not native to this area there are some people that want to get rid of them since they compete with bears for food. Both bear and boar eat acorns and nuts but the boar are really good at what they do and can clean an area up in just a little while and leave nothing for the bear to eat. It’s pretty easy to tell if wild boar have been in the woods as you’ll swear that someone brought some big piece of earth moving equipment out there. This is why there needs to be a hunting season on them. They don’t have any predators and they can reproduce quickly so if there were no hunters, hogs would take over and drive out bear and deer.
Oh yeah, just in case you were wondering, David is not going to take me boar hunting (EVER!). It’s not legal to hunt with dogs now so he and his friend will be still hunting for them. We’ll give you an update on a later post.
I’m going to be in timeout for a while since I did a pretty bad thing yesterday. Instead of staying around the house and playing with Ernie or sleeping in Percy’s yard I went somewhere that I wasn’t supposed to go and got in trouble. Parents and adults in our lives are there to help us not make the same mistakes that they made. David told me about how he got in trouble for riding his bike on the highway when he was told not to. Yesterday, I did the same thing (except I wasn’t riding a bike) and went down to the highway which is a long way from the house. One of the neighbors found me there and took me back to his yard and called Dr. Tami’s office and my tag number said I was one of Mr. Junior’s dogs. Dr. Tami called Mr. Junior’s house and Ms. Cristal talked to them and when she heard where I was guessed that I was David’s dog and drove out to the neighbor’s house with Dakota and Tristen, picked me up and took me over to the Mountain Heritage Center and then David took me back home. David and I both thank Ms. Cristal, Dakota and Tristen for coming and getting me and I apologize to Ms. Cristal for having to go to so much trouble. Playing around a highway is dangerous for both children and dogs and I hope that my readers out there will listen to what people tell them about staying away from dangerous things.
If you would like to meet Jeannette and her chickens and see me fall on the ice you can check this out:
It’s been a while since I talked to you but we’ve been on vacation (actually I’m always on vacation) and David hasn’t been in the office. Anyway, I had so much FUN over the past few weeks with Christmas, snow and ice skating. That’s right, ice skating! I went to the mailbox with Jeannette and Ernie yesterday and tried to get a drink out of the pond. The pond was hard! Next thing I knew, I was slipping and sliding all over the pond. I didn’t know what to think at first but then it was really fun.
The other fun thing was playing with Ernie and Leroy over Christmas. I got a new squeeze toy and a bunch of good things to eat. The most fun things are Ernie’s squeeze toys and you can see us in the picture playing tug-o-war with Ernie’s goose (it’s a lot flatter now). Also here’s a picture of Sissie’s husband Josh and Leroy. Leroy is an Australian Cattle dog and he sure does have a lot of energy. Josh has a lot of energy too and he’s a lot of fun to go on walks with because he never gets tired either.
I just wanted to wish all of you the best holiday ever! I’ll be on vacation with David for a few days and we’ll be back after the New Year to tell you some more stories about history, hunting and dogs.
Speaking of dogs– our good friend Mr. Bob Plott has a full blood Crockett Plott that he is going to have to give to a good home. Buck has a slight vision problem so he can’t be hunted. He’s a really gentle and smart dog (like most Plotts) and would make a good companion as well as a great watch dog. If you think you might want a Plott hound for a pet just let us know and we’ll help make it a possibility for you.
Everyone have a great time over the holidays.Nannie
When we opened the exhibit here at the Mountain Heritage Center, David and I got to meet Mr. Shane Plott whose grandmother was who I was named after. Here’s a picture of her with her husband Herbert. He was known as “Hub” and was a well known breeder of Plott hounds. Mr. Shane is going to start breeding Plott hounds and I’ll bet that he’ll eventually have a fine pack of hounds just like his grandfather did. It’s nice that people like Mr. Shane and Mr. Bob are keeping up the family tradition of hunting and breeding us Plott hounds.Mr. Bob told us that Nannie had a great sense of humor and was also an amateur historian that lived to be 97 years old. I think I’m like Ms. Nannie since I have a good sense of humor (Ernie doesn’t think it’s too funny though when I grab his tail and drag him across the floor ). The other thing I love are hearing the stories about Plott hounds and then I like telling them to you. From what Mr. Shane told us, she and Jeannette are in agreement about their chickens. Ms. Nannie loved the Plott dogs but if any of them did anything to her chickens there would be real trouble for the dog.
Plott hounds can be taught to do most anything though. I want to start practicing again on herding our chickens. We’ve had a lot of problems with coyotes in our neighborhood so Jeannette has been keeping them penned up all day. When the Plott hounds were developed in Germany they were also used to herd livestock when they weren’t hunting boar. There are many accounts of them doing the same thing when they arrived in America. The settler’s chickens, ducks, pigs and cows were all free ranging so they needed a dog that could hunt plus help them to bring their stock back in.
I’m proud to be a Plott and to be named after Nannie Plott!
Yesterday I had some surgery that will keep me from having puppies and so did my cousin Leroy. This kind of goes back to the post about having a Plott hound for a pet. You need to be able to be responsible for the dogs that you have. In most cases a pet should be spayed or neutered so the owner doesn’t have to deal with unwanted puppies if you have a female or fighting and straying in the case of a male. Leroy and I are both real high-energy dogs and we’re probably enough of a handful without having to deal with a litter of puppies or having Leroy wander off and get in a fight with another dog or get hit by a car. Be responsible for your pets and do the right thing. I don’t talk about cats too much but you should do the same thing for them too.
Well, I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck so I’m going to spend most of the day sleeping. I did have enough energy this morning to eat Ernie’s food before he got to it but that’s about all I can do today.
I just wanted to wish everyone out there a Happy Thanksgiving. I’m going to be playing a lot with Bella the German Shorthair and Leroy, my new nephew, who is a Blue Heeler. I’ll show you some pictures of my Thanksgiving next week when David comes back to work. Anyway, make sure your dogs get to eat a lot of really good turkey, dressing and gravy over the next few days. This will help us to sleep better and keep us out of trouble.
I promise you that we’ll start looking around the exhibit shortly but something came up today that we have to talk about. David read me an article in the Sylva Herald about two local men that were sentenced to prison for poaching a bear. David and I know a lot of hunters now and EVERY ONE of them are good and careful hunters and would never think about killing a bear illegally. Most people don’t realize this but a lot of the hunters that we know don’t kill the bear even if they could. The problem is that you never see headlines about these kinds of hunters so the people that don’t like hunting and hunters think they are all poachers. Well, they’re not! They are good and generous folks that support a healthy animal population, take excellent care of their dogs and work hard to make sure it will stay this way. The game population is greater than it has ever been and it’s because most of the hunters obey the law. There are more people to than ever and this makes for something dangerous. A lot of people think a bear is cute like me but they’re not. They are strong, fast, smart and can be very dangerous and hunters help to keep them afraid of people. If bears aren’t afraid of people it’s not going to be too much longer before someone is going to be hurt or killed. Bears may look cute but they’re not. I really am cute so you can pet me and feed me if you want. Don’t try that with a bear. We’ll get back in the museum next week.
In fact, here’s a picture of me with my brothers and sisters around the time of the dedication resting after eating and playing. I’m the second one from the left.
Nannie
