A good friend of mine has a big coon hound named "Tick." The dog got his name due to his working of running down coons as Tom, says like clockwork. He gets the scent and he's off like a shot and before long has that old coon treeded.
Now before you all get worried, both Tom and his dog are up in years, so the chase is the thrill and coon that was treeded, is a toy on a rope that the dog gets lowered to him to chew up. For old Tom, sprayed the trail with coon urine, to a tree in his back field.
Tom, says there is nothing like the sound of a coon hound baying when it is trailing a coon. Tom often tells me tales about his younger days as a youth in the south where poor folks ate lots of coon stew. And how they would get out in the woods at night to run coons.
He told me one of the dangers to a coon hound is swiming after a coon in crossing a creek. Sometimes, that ole coon will swim back to the dog and climb up on his head, and try by it's weight to drown the dog. Sometimes the dog gets away, but often times not.
Anyways "Tick," being an outside dog needed a new house. So Tom wrote me a long letter explaining how it was made and why he done it.
The old one got a bit drafty after Tick chewed the main support for the back wall. And when this open ended view was not enough, the roof support was weaked by Tick jumping on it repeatedly.
So with a friend's help Tom, made a new insulated doghouse with a fine southernly view and a swinging door flap. He set it up on skids to prevent moisture inside and nailed boards around the bottom to keep the wind from whistling through Tick's under eaves.
Tom, then put a thick layer of cedar shavings in the box to help repel fleas and to replace the fine pillow bed that Tick torn to bits, when he redid the construction of his old dog house.
Tom said he sure hopes this new doghouse lasts till Spring, which is only two months away.
Tick's New Doghouse 
