Bennett Sewell Art

Hot Spot is my name.  I live with the Amos Roosevelt family.  When I was just an old puppy, my owner and friend, Mr. Roosevelt, would take me up the Texas and Pacific railroad track near the Widowmaker Swamp and we would chase rabbits.  He loved to go early Sunday morning before church and on Saturday afternoon after he got through working.  He would take his old “hand me down” 12 gauge shotgun and stand on the tracks and holler, “Go Hot Spot, go get ‘em Hot Spot” and I would run into the briar patch full blast.  I could follow a swamp rabbit through two circles or more in a driving rain storm, even when a skunk was up wind.  I got real good.  I’m not afraid of snakes and don’t mind scratches when in hot pursuit.  When the rabbits would hear me, the young ones would run deeper into the bushes and the old ones would hunt a hole.  Then one day he said, “Hot Spot, when you run a rabbit into the grave yard, let him be.  And the next day he said, “A fella can’t spend all his life chasing rabbits.  You and I need to do some big good.  With your permission, we’re gonna sign up for search and rescue.  We’re gonna help.”

 

So the big chase began again; there is more than enough sorrow and tragedy to go around.  We did it all: mudslides and avalanches, building collapses when the landlord built another floor on top, cat shows, holy roller conferences, and rock concerts when things got out of hand and lost skydivers. I got real good.  The other dogs knew my bray of success.  I could go deeper and stay longer than most dogs.  But as the summers and winters passed, the rescue part got harder and harder.  One day Mr. Roosevelt said to me, “Hot Spot, I know, I know, you got a big brave heart.  With your permission, I’m gonna turn you out.”

 

So it began again, I dug a big hole under the back porch.  It’s cool there and I come and go as I wish.  My life is full.  The Roosevelt children are all over me, the food is good, and I can see what is going on just fine from underneath the back porch.  When my old friends stop by and ask me to join them in another chase, I feel okay to say, “Old friends, I’m so glad to see you, but I got all I want to do at the present time.”

 

Hattie Mae:

 

When old dogs looking forward don’t see many more summers or winters, they look back more and think a little.  So I went by Hot Spot’s cool spot and asked him what he was thinking and he said, “Number 1, early on when a dog starts chasin’ real hard, many times he will run in a big circle of his own making.  Number 2, when a dog loses his way, he needs to go back to where he started and ask himself was that which he was chasing worthwhile to catch, was it more than just chasin’ himself.  Number 3, with the answer in his head he needs to get at it again.  This may happen more than once.  Number 4, when a dog has had his day and all dogs do, he needs to find himself a good cool spot so that when old friends visit and they ask how he is doing, all he needs to say is , ‘Good, How are you doing?’”