My Dad - In a Beagles Life

My Dad – In a Beagles Life!

My dad has always referred to himself as a mountain man.  He loves to spend ALL his spare time in the mountains; hunting, fishing, camping, enjoying life from the view of a great horned owl (if you know my father personally then you will quickly notice the play on words).  He has hunted almost every beast in America, that is legal, to hunt.  He was a taxidermist in past years and I grew up surrounded by stuffed critters.  His only fear was an eight-legged monster, better known as the spider.  He would catch snakes with his bare hands. He has sewn up dogs in the mountains and saved their lives after encounters with predators when caught off-guard. He was a man that would leave you with a furrowed impression.

The dogs he trained became very valuable.  In fact, one of his most expensive and favorite dogs ran over a cliff in the winter of 1977 just before I was born; he took her home, rolled her up in an old tapestry rug and buried her up the mountain behind his home (at the time).  The comical part of this story is that I ended up with her name… yes, you heard correctly, my middle name is Sheena, the same as dads deceased dog..lol! My mother to this day insists that the dogs name was spelled with one “e” (Shena) on her papers, but I have always felt dad knew otherwise!

My dad called this evening to check on everyone and we were talking about a bit of everything.  He said that he would leave me some birthday money next week at my aunts house and I said: “dad, can you believe your baby girl will be 33 next week.”  He said: ”Actually I never really think about age much but the other evening as I was making my way back across the mountain from buying another beagle, it occurred to me that this very well could be my last trip.” You see, my dad has been making that trip every 12-13 years (about the average life of each beagle) since he was a young man.  He said: "the next trip I’ll be seventy and chances are that I either won’t be up to making the trip or too tired to train and hunt another dog” of course I said: “daddy, you better go ahead and plan to make that trip!”

He told me a couple of months after my first son was born that his only regret in his life was that he didn’t spend more time with my brother and me when we were little instead of hunting.  I don’t remember being neglected my daddy, my memories are of a man who would do anything to provide for his children. I was so very proud to link my arm in his as we walked down the aisle and he gave me away.  As the song Butterfly Kisses played, his eyes filled with tears and my face begin to shine as the words rang so true of our relationship on so many levels. He is a hero of mine... I STILL think he knows everything!!  He is an even better papaw than I could have ever imagined.  God sure did bless me when he chose a good ole' mountain boy to be my dad.

People have many different ways that they reflect on their life and the time periods or decades BUT I just have to smile when I think of my daddy measuring his life, in the life span of beagles.