Letter from Jed

We have sold Jed (out of Max and Bandit, full brother to Spud) to Peter Bolomolov. Peter is 16 and lives near St. Louis, MO. He had a Feist named, Beau who had an accident recently. Peter and his mother drove the 7 hours this weekend and Jed is in his new home. At first, Peter was slightly worried that Jed did not seem that hungry. Well, he had been running out in our yard here with an automatic feeder so he was probably pretty full! I am posting a photo of Beau (red Feist) and Jed with Peter and a little note Jed had Peter send when he got settled in to his new environment. The Bolomolov's have another dog and a pet bird. We sure want a picture of Jed and his new animal friends too!
Hello Galla Creek from Jed,
I managed to convince Peter I should do the whole trip in his lap. The driver got a picture of us both asleep and folded up. I finally did eat dinner and drink some water so don't worry about what the driver was trying to ask you when the phone kept cutting out. Once we got home I met a really big dog but it was wagging its tail. These crazy people all started talking funny and I couldn't understand a thing but since they were petting me I guess its okak. The only one talking right was some guy under a big square blanket and he was telling me to "save the bird" and give a kiss. Oh brother. So it is time for me to curl up and sleep. I am crated but the big dog is sleeping near and I'm not lonely. Thanks for giving me a chance to be part of this funny sounding family. I will send pictures soon. Jed

In Memory of Peter Bolomolov's Beau

Went on a squirrel hunt yesterday to Scott County and ran into another hunter over there. Jerry Hunt is his name and he was telling all about his squirrel dog, Scruffy. They have been doing good this season. Killed 4 one evening this week, 6 another and last weekend he said he got 10 over on Jack Creek. I asked what he would take for Scruffy--he said Scruffy was not for sale. I thought Scruff looked familiar as he had the Old Rowdy look about him. His mother is the little white and red pup in the above photo. She was out of Pris Wilkerson and Old Rowdy. I sold her to Stacy Fowler when she was 6 weeks old. So just out hunting we ran into a Galla Creek Feist. We treed a few and made a little video I will post in a few days...but running into Scruff was the highlight of the day!
Jerry Hunt and Scruffy--His mother's line goes Pris Wilkerson and Old Rowdy. Pris Wilkerson is out of Belle and Snowball. Bell is a daughter of Allar's Fred and Fred is out of Old Rowdy! Small world when it comes to squirrel dogs! Old Rowdy's genes still going strong. Scruff is only a year.

Vacation In Arkansas

These guys are getting ready for a little vacation in Arkansas. Season ends February 28

and they say they are ready for a little more relaxing and a little less chasing!

O' Hickory

Hickory belongs to Sterling Earhart. He is out of Radio Flyer and Tia. Thanks for remembering us with the pictures, guys, the Feist Blog would not be possible without all the photos you share. I am adding a link to another fun hunt Sterling had with Hickory--

Tree That Dog--Hickory!!

Here is what Sterling said in the email:

Hello Larry and Betty, hope ya'll are doing well and surviving this winter well. I had a good hunt with Hickory yesterday afternoon so I took a picture since our season is about over. I killed four but had a shot at another one, four is over my limit so I let it go. Don't like to kill more then two or three at a time when I'm hunting by myself. But Hick was doing such a good job I knocked him out an extra one, then put him on a leach and went to the truck. I also got a rabbit that he jumped. It has been fun hunting Hickory this year and he has improved as the season progressed. Thanks for the work ya'll have done with these Feist. Sterling

Robert Clifton's Lily

Lily is in camo in the snow! I love this photo and think it could be in a photo contest. You have to really concentrate to even see Lily. She is a Mountain Feist from Birmingham, AL and belongs to Robert and Wendy Clifton! They don't know much about her breeding but that is not really important when you love your Feist. Thanks for sharing with us, Robert and keep the photos coming our way.

Greta Gets her Due

Sterling Earhart is giving Greta and Sam a reward for their labor. Thanks Roger Littlejohn for sending the photo along. Here is his email.

Good Morning. Larry:

Sterling and I hunted one of the local islands yesterday with Greta, Smarty & Sam. Although Sam showed Greta & Smarty the fine art of treeing "Lay Ups", you have to keep these young dogs in the woods for them to learn. Sam (Cody bred) is in the background, having done his job while Sterling's getting ready to serve up Squack Treats... you can see that Greta's learning what that means :-)

Roger

Matt Howell's Dixie

Matt sent these pictures by his phone. Dixie (Dobs and Max) treed that little gray squirrel on her own. She has been helping Rosco when they hunt together but the top photo is from a hunt Dixie went on alone. Matt said she treed her first squirrel at 7 months. Those blue eyes shine.

She has one blue eye and half of the other eye is blue. Good job, Dixie!

Tie AKA Oliver

Here is Tie's first squirrel I actually shot out to him. I don't eat the squirrels during this time of year. You can see why they don't look appetizing in the photo.

O' Tie that Binds

Here is a video of the first squirrel Oliver treed that I got for him.

I failed him on his first 2 trees and let the squirrel get to a hole.

They are staying close to the den trees and going there fast. But I

did get this one and took his picture with it which I will post tomorrow.

I am going to try to call Oliver--Tie and I am changing his name. I have

an Opal-Spud cross female named Olive Oyl and I call her Ollie so this

is too confusing and I have decided to call Oliver..."O' Tie That Binds". He

is tied to my Feists in the past and the ones I plan to breed. I will probably

use him with Bandit instead of Shooter. He is more in line with Bandit and

the gene pool will be a better close selection to get a sameness in the litter.

Dogs not close in genetics will produce an outcross of pups--if they have 6

pups usually two will be bigger than the parents, two will be smaller and two

about the size of the parents. Since genetics also controls the treeing ability

you don't have as good as odds in getting 6 good squirrel dogs in an outcross

as you do with line breeding. I believe in breeding lines and Betty studies the

lines to make our picks. Anyway I am hoping that Tie can bind my past dogs

to future great squirrel dogs. Some dogs seem to not throw the genetics of

treeing very well and they may be great dogs. I don't understand all there is

to know about genetics but I am smart enough to try to do what works for me.

Crossing the same dogs over and over in a pedigree will get you a minature

breed and I don't do this. If I had 2 dogs named Dirt and Sal and I crossed them

and then I always crossed their pups without other dogs being crossed in the

size of the dogs would get smaller and their bad genes would show up more.

So full brother and sister crosses on both sides of the pedigree is not for me. It is

just too close and the genes you don't want will show up more and more. Lesson

1 in squirrel dog breeding is over and if you read all of this thanks for listening to

an old squirrel hunter ramble on about his beliefs and ideas!

Hang Old Man Winter

This is how tired I am of snow, ice and cold! Hang winter!

Oliver's Grandmother

I took Oliver hunting with his Granny. I call her Bandit. Betty calls her Spook. She is the mother of Spud, Nelson, Bonnie Sue Parker, Floyd, Opal, Rosco, Dobs and many more good squirrel dogs.

New Twist--Galla Creek Oliver

Here is O-Liver's (I have been calling him Liver, because I already have a Ollie) first time squirrel hunting and road hunting.

Oliver

Oliver is Case and Allis's brother. I went to Marshall, Tx and brought
him back here a couple of weeks ago. I finally took him hunting yesterday
and he treed 3 squirrels. I think he is a keeper.

Smarty and Gretta

Roger Littlejohn owns Smarty (tan) and Sterling Earhart owns Gretta. Gretta's father is a

Dusty/Sally cross. As is Smarty's grandmother, Dummy. Gretta's mother Opal is a granddaughter of Dummy, as is Smarty's father Floyd. I tried to figure out all the ways they are kin but it is too confusing. Anyhow, if they both make good squirrel dogs they were be a great cross.

Cold Springs Rosco

Matt Howell's Rosco treeing in the snow.

Happy Valentine's Day

Three Generations

The bottom photo is Galla Creek Carolina Crossfire, Brownie. The next one up is Brown Sugar, her daughter, and the top two are Sugar's daughter Cinnamon. Brownie is in retirement North of Batesville, Ar. Sugar is owned by Tim Taylor. The Calvert family own Cinnamon and Mr. Wilkes. Here is the email from the Calverts. A special thank you goes out for these pictures of Cinnamon. I can see she looks like her grandmother, Brownie, the little Bench legged Feist from North Carolina!

Larry and Ms. Betty, here are some pictures of Cinnamon (White Razor x Brown Sugar) taken today. It seldom snows here, so Cinnamon is having a good time.

We got Cinnamon (Mister Wilkes also) from Tim Taylor. She weighed about one and a half pounds, so we knew she needed to stay inside for awhile. Now she is about 8 months old and is still in the house. She is one of the bright spots in our lives. She is a joy to own.

Thank you,
Danny & Sarah Calvert in Alabama

Dobs, Dibs, and Dabs

These pups along with Matt Howell's Rosco were from a Bandit litter with G. W. Carver. Dobs is now owned by Troy Vance, Dibs is in LA and Dabs got hit by the meter reader. They were big pups here enjoying life. I would enjoy life more if the snow would melt. It is off the roads but not off the fields and timber.

Good Sign

Roger Littlejohn sent these photos of Smarty. He has started treeing birds. That's what a lot of my dogs do. Especially the ones I let run out a lot when they are young. Once they start this action the rest follows quickly. Smarty is out of Spud's brother, Floyd. Floyd is from the same litter as Nelson.

Home Again, Home Again Gig-a-Gee Jog!

In today's world of bad news coming in bundles, it is so good to hear that something good has happened. Adam Patterson found Nelson the next day after losing him. He had traveled 10 miles and was in the town of Oxford, Mississippi. I guess we will never know how he got there,but we will not question providence! We are just glad he is 'home again', and I know we are not as happy as Adam. He sent an email and these photos from Nelson's hunt last week, Feb.3, 2010. I am sure I see a rabbit on that tailgate. Maybe Nelson chased a rabbit to Oxford! lol
Here is Adam's email!Here are a few pictures from a hunt that my brother, my cousin, and myself went on last Friday. I took a day off from school, and we had a blast. I also wanted to say thanks for all of the help in finding Nelson this past weekend. Nelson has been a lot of fun this hunting season. This was the best hunt that i've been on this year. Have a great week.
God Bless,
Adam Patterson

Six Pence & Jill

Six Pence & Jill are Spook/Shooter pups and are both still young. Penny (Pence) belongs to Brian Stanton and Jill is ours. Next year they should be queens of the woods.

Miley Ray Sings A Treeing Song

Ronnie Salley sent welcomed pictures of Miley Ray. She is out of Rossi and Amos Moses. Rossi is out of Baby Face Nelson and Nogo Nell. Ronnie's email is between the photos. Thanks for sharing Ronnie. The young female is a pup Ronnie got from Jr. Green--out of Shammy & Radio.

Mr. Larry,

I just wanted to send you the latest pictures I have of Miley's last two hunts, she is having to hunt hard using all of her sense's the squirrels down here in Converse, Louisiana are not on the ground for some reason every one I know is having a hard time hunting, all of the squirrels are hanging tight up in the trees.The first picture of Miley taken on 1/31/2010 (the one with me in it) she treed about ten times I managed to get seven of them, kinda hard when you are by yourself. The other little dog in the picture is the little female I bought from Mr.Jr. Green he named her Sophie but my little girl changed her name to Gabby.

The second picture was taken on the next hunt on 2/02/2010, I went hunting with a friend of mine over at his house. The squirrels were still up in the trees never seen a squirrel on the ground all after noon, Miley still working hard though, Gabby still has a lot of puppy left in her but she does like to get her mouth around every squirrel that hits the ground. On this hunt Miley treed about fifteen times some were in holes, we killed twelve but only brought home ten two got hung up in the trees. Any way just wanted to let you know how pleased I am with Miley and my friend was pretty impressed with how she could wind the squirrels up in the trees.

Bulletin--Baby Face Nelson Missing

Adam Patterson just called me from Tupelo, MS. He lost Nelson yesterday about 3:45 P.M. He was hunting Upper Sardis Management Area near Graham. This is in Lafayette County Mississippi. Nelson has a chip to ID him. Adam had a tracking collar on Nelson. They were about ready to call it a day. They were near a gravel road. Within a few minutes of not finding Nelson he tried to track him. He got no signal on him. One would like to think maybe he bumped a deer, but Nelson did not do that so we don't think he went out of range. I am posting some photos of him and hope that anyone who hears of him will give Adam a call at 662 296 8127. Adam said there were several hunters in the area yesterday. Hopefully, we will get good news soon. He had a identifying collar plus the tracking one.
Can call me at 479 890 8090

Opal--Tied Back

I went squirrel hunting Saturday with Matt Howell, his two nephews, and my son in law, Greg. We took Rosco, Opal and Spud. We treed several and I brought home 4 to have dumplings in tonight. So it was a successful hunt.

The video is of Opal treed and tied back. We let her tree and let the squirrel move and when it settled you will see she is tied to a little bush where she can still see everything. This is the way a young dog should be trained and is good for an older one too!

Annie Oakley's Son

Brian Stanton and his friend Scott went hunting in River Bottoms around Pine Bluff. The photo is of a hunt with Spot who is out of Annie. I think Annie is out of Belle and Max. Thanks for the

picture...I count 11 or 12 squirrels on that tailgate. Brian has a pup out of Spook and Shooter--Sixpence--she is still just learning.

Billy Copeland & Case

Billy Copeland sent this photo of he and Case after a hunt this week.

Billy said--
Happy days are here again. Enjoying the beauty of the day with a good pal and friend. The weather was 50 to 55 degrees and no wind. Treed 7 times and got 3. What a joy! Billy

Nelson, his Mom, and Nell--2004

This was 6 years ago--Nelson, his Mom, and Nell--so much has passed. Bandit is the only one of the three still here on Galla Creek.