228

A. Varesano interviewing Joe Sulkusky ( and Mrs. S.)

10

Tape 30-2

430

was white, and you could see him, no matter where he was, runnin' around, you could see him. That's how I used to watch. I'd get up somewhere where it was a little higher, and I would keep on lookin' where the hell he is. And I shot a lot of rabbits around here. Yeah, I used to shoot the hell out of 'em, down there. He was a good dog for that.

AV: What happened to him?

JS: I shot him.

AV: You shot him?

JS: You know, my son-in-law, he got a dog down in Jersey. And he come up here when he was just about that big. And I looked at the dog, and I says, what breed is that? Oh, he said, that's, he's a good huntin' dog, he says, gonna be something like a beagle, you know. And, all right, uhh-uh, I says, that's gonna be a Teddy Bear dog, I says: You know, that son of a gun has paws now, I says, bigger than a big dog, I said. They're thick and strong as hell! That's gonna be a mighty powerful dog, I says. It was a black one. So, it wasn't long after, when the dog grew up a bit already, he brought him up her for me. Well, he brought him up for me, and I had him here. he had all the tags on him, you know, and everything, and he had a collar and a chain and everything. I hooked him down there. I had Whitey dwon there then, too. I hooked him down there, Well, he could break a, either the strap would go, or the chain would go, ot the pen would come with him, one of the three would have to happen. And you know what he was, he was a Water Retriever, that's what he was. So, Steven was up here, and his daddy. they come up, and, ha ha we were goin' out for a walk. So Steven left Whitey out. And I says to him what the hell did you leave him out for, I says. That one'll go wild, I says, he'll go crazy there. So finally, he started to jump around and divin' up in the air and everything, and yet his daddy says to him, he says, you better go and loosen that one, now because he says he's gonna choke himself or break somethin' or somethin' is gonna happen, he says. So, he's goes back and try to loosen him, he couldn't. He wouldn't give him no slack, and he wasn't strong enough for him. So I go back, and I loosen him. So, he come with us, when we got down here a piece-way, these caves down here, and they were strippin' below that, away back further. Now it's all bull-dozed around there, that's all covered up there. So, there were water in it, lots of water. And he smelt that water,from away up here. And he goes like a bullet, down he goes, and Steven hollered at him, he thought he was runnin' away. I said Let him go. I says. Any dog that don't know his master, or don't know how to find him, I says. he's no good to you. I says, a dog has to know his master and where to find him, and everything. So, we're goin' down, goin' down, and when we come to that place, he's swimmin' like hell in the damn water in the strippin'. I said, there he is. Hell, did that kid have the fun with him then. He would throw sticks in,and what and that, and he would dive in and go and grab the stick and bring it out and lay it down by his feet. I said, there you are, I said, that dog is for a hunter that hunts wild geese you know, or wild ducks, or waterfowl. I says, he's all right. He'll bring everyone out for him that he shoots on the water. I said, that's all. He's no good for me, I says, I ain't got no place to hunt duck or geese. Only in the fall or in the spring when they're flyin' across. Generally they fly across, they come from this section, and they go out this way. And ducks, well, one time there were ducks hero, and now I don't see a duck for--the last time I seen ducks here, when Steven and Joe, the family was up, and down below down there, we were down lookin' for mushrooms or somethin' and we took Whitey with us, and he got runnin' around, and first thing you know he seen the mother duck-- Quack, quack, you know, and she starts swimmin'--about twelve little ducks,