Buck-Dog 1996-2007

Yes- Buck-dog is a real dog.  He was born a nameless pup on July 4th, 1996, to a family in Burlington, North Carolina.  We had just lost our dog Wyatt, and Paula, my wife, wanted a big dog to replace Wyatt.  We searched through the classifieds and finally saw a listing that read "Shepherd mix pups.  Free to a good home."  We drove up and met the folks.  Right away I was impressed by the tiny dog that would grow up to be Buck.  He was the runt, and as he ate, he snorted like a pig.  The owner was telling us, "Well, we don't know who the father is.  We've seen another Shepherd in the yard, an Irish Setter, a Lab, a Chow, and a Retriever."  As an after thought he added, "And we've also seen a Basset Hound."  We all laughed at that idea, it was just so preposterous.  The mother was a huge, long legged, full blooded, German Shepherd.  A Basset Hound wouldn't have come to her knees.  So, we picked up the little dog that snorted like a pig and headed home.  We named him Buck, after Jack London's famous dog.  He started to grow, and he grew straight up for about three days. Then started getting longer and longer and longer and longer.  One day we saw a Basset Hound run by the house, a ladder strapped to his back, and that made it perfectly clear; our dog was obviously half Shepherd, half Basset.

Buck was already named Buck long before I ever considered writing tales about him, but when I finally wrote "Buck Ain't No Ordinary Dog,"  the name lent itself well to the creation of tall-tales.  I try and tell him the stories, and I showed him the website, but he's not all that interested.