Gone but Not Forgotten

Our first Hound to die on us was Dalton's Hidden Meadows Blue Rock.  Rock was 7 at the time and it was a hot hot nigth. Sept. 13, 2005.  We turned 3 dogs loose that night and Ole Rock did his usual thing scratching and pissing around.  Well by this time Ole Fathead and Spook had struck and were moving the track real well.  Well most of the time Rock is right there with them, but not this time.  They came treed still I haven't heard Rock.  I tell Eli my nephew something isn't right I don't hear Rock in there with them.  He says he don't either.  So we drive around to the dogs and they were treed with  a coon in a Cherry tree.  We get them and I kill their collars and start to track Rock.  He is back in the area we cut loose at.  I knew something was wrong just as I got that signal because if you ever hunted with Rock you knew he was going to be with the dogs.  Well we go back to the spot we turned loose and I start tracking him and get him down by the creek the closer I get to the creek the better signal.  Well as we come around a bend in the creek Eli says did you have the yellow collar on him and I said yes and he says right here is the collar and I said son the dog is under the water.  We don't know exactly like happen unless Rock hit that cool water and his heart exploded on him but all I know is that this Ole man's heart did at that very moment.  I loved that Ole dog because he was as smart a coondog as I have ever seen.  He would be treed with the meat and all I had to do is say Rock go to the truck.  He was off to the truck and if he wasn't right in front of you walking out of the woods he would be in the box or on the tail gate when you got there.  This is no lie.  I have never had another this smart of a dog.  That may have been his down fall he was inbred but had a head full of sense.  I just know I miss the heck out of him and I cried the whole time I dug his grave.  Thanks for the memories Ole Man you are missed everytime I unsnap the lead on the others.