Beulah liked to be in the kitchen when the evening meal was being prepared. She loved the aromas from the cooking and she was anticipating her own dinner. Sometimes she would lie right in the middle of the kitchen. One evening, Mom's sister, Aunt Jo, was busy preparing a meal and she was having to step over Beulah constantly while doing her cooking. Finally, she spoke sharply to Beulah and said “Beulah, get out of the way!” Beulah stood up and started to walk away. She stopped, looked back over her shoulder at Aunt Jo, barked sharply and twitched her rear at the same time. Then she walked to the door, went out on the deck and laid down. Aunt Jo said “I believe Beulah just told me to kiss her back end!”.

Later Beulah’s dinner was prepared and Aunt Jo called her to come in from the deck and eat. Beulah ignored her. After calling her several times without success, Aunt Jo went out on the deck and told her that her dinner was ready. Beulah turned her head away from Aunt Jo. Finally Aunt Jo sat down beside Beulah and said “Beulah, I am sorry I shouted at you. I apologize.” Beulah turned her head, looked up at Aunt Jo and "smiled". She got up and accompanied her back into the house and ate her dinner.

During the Christmas season one year, in the evening Mom and Beulah’s Man were watching television in the family room overlooking the river. Beulah started pacing the room and seemed to be quite agitated. Since there had been armadillo activity recently, Beulah’s Man thought there might be an armadillo in the yard and that this was the source of Beulah’s pacing and agitation. Finally, she stared running around the room, whining and looking out the door. She was so frantic, finally her Man opened the door and went in the backyard with Beulah. She ran to the dock and when her Man followed he saw that the boat was missing. Beulah’s man had a flash light and shined it out on the river. There was a man in a boat towing Beulah’s boat behind. The man turned his head away so as not to be recognized. Beulah barked and her Man shouted “I am going to shoot you!” The boat thief dropped the tow line, hurriedly cranked his motor and sped off down the river leaving Beulah’s boat floating along. Beulah’s man dropped a kayak in the river and retrieved the boat.

The next day Beulah and her Man were down at the Yankeetown Marina. Beulah was always welcome at the marina and there were a number of people inside. Beulah was always friendly with everyone at the marina and some of them would always pet her. Most of them knew Beulah and accepted her as a “fishing equal”. The door opened and a man walked in. Immediately, Beulah bristled up and she growled at the man and started for him. Everyone was very surprised because Beulah had never growled at anyone before. Beulah’s man held her back, and while the man was present told the story of the attempted boat theft. He also said loudly “The next time that scumbag comes back I have a .45 hollow point saved up for him.” The man left quickly.

Later that afternoon, Beulah was in her Man’s truck looking out the driver's window while he talked to a local guide that was cleaning his fish. The same man she had growled at in the marina walked by the truck; Beulah barked and lunged for him. The man darted away. Since Beulah had never seen that man before, and there was absolutely no reason for her to act out of character, it seemed obvious that this man was the boat thief that attempted to steal Beulah’s boat the previous evening, Beulah had recognized his smell because the thief had been all over the dock trying to steal the boat. Scientists claim dogs have over 50 times more receptors in their nose that a human, and that everywhere we go we leave a little trail of ourselves that a dog can detect even days later. The man was definitely the boat thief, and it was too bad that Beulah’s testimony would not hold up in court.

One can list humanity’s worse characteristics and the dog has none of them; one can list humanity’s virtues and the dog has them all. Dogs are unselfish, devoted and constant in their love; unfortunately, many dog owners are not worthy of such love and devotion. I agree with what someone once said about his dog. “My goal in life is to become as good a person as my dog thinks I am.”

A dog’s relationship with humans is the purest of any of God’s creatures. Dogs are the only animals that would not hesitate to give their lives to protect their humans. No other animal would do so. And in contrast, there are very few humans that would give their lives to protect another, and even fewer that would do so to protect their dog. Like little children, dogs are without sin, and as they mature, they become what people make of them. Most faults blamed on dogs can be laid directly to the feet of their humans.

A man and his hunting dogs form a great bond of love and mutual respect; they share an intimacy that non hunters could never even begin to understand. Beulah and I formed such a bond with our fishing. Fishing was her passion and mine, and the two of us shared many happy hours together on the water. She was my dog friend and the best fishing buddy I ever had. Beulah will greatly be missed, and when I fish the Gulf waters around Yankeetown, it will never be quite the same again.