By the way, there is a dude named Mark Swallows that lives in Cookeville, TN.

You can Google him.

Back in the day (‘81ish), I had a buddy that went down to bank fish at a local lake. When he got to the shore, somebody had thrown a litter of pups in to drown them. One pup was still alive and fighting the good fight, all others died. My buddy was able to fish him out. He was a mutt with mostly bird dog in him. He gave the pup to me and I named him Spitz because that little buddy fought the good fight swimming, and saved his life.

Fast forward a few years. I was a struggling musician renting an old farmhouse. This old boy in an old truck drove up to the house and commenced to wrapping on my front door. When I answered, this old man was hopping mad...asked me if I had a dog, then described Spitz to a tee. Being wise, I asked him why. He told me “That dog has been getting into my henhouse and has destroyed over $1k’s worth of my laying hens.” In my mind, I’m thinking, “SOB, I haven’t eaten in two days and that damn dog has been eating hens, like lobster!” And I of course told the guy, “Sorry to hear about that but, nope, not my dog”.

Now mind you, we’re at my front door and I’m standing there with the door open. As God is my witness, while this old man is continuing to rant, that damn dog comes running out of the tree line next to the house...he’s got feathers dangling from all parts of his face, he makes a beeline past the old man, runs between my legs and into the house! Busted!!!

I can tell you, despite the hen thing...I’ve never had a better dog than Spitz.

RIP Spitz!!!

I saw him on a commercial the other night. I totally forgot about him since then. I remember watching him as a kid in the Olympics.

But sure, I loved Maghum PI.

No, I preferred the Farrah Fawcett poster.