Chapter Eight Finds a Congenial Dog Friend - Leaves Home One day someone inquired, "Have you seen Carlo?" No one could say they had seen him that day, and we all wondered where he could be. We called and called and he did not come, that was very strange for he was always around somewhere before. We watched and waited all that day, and still he did not come. Next day, we inquired of our neighbors or anyone we saw. They had not seen him, night came and he had not been found. On the third day, someone told us they had seen a dog they were sure was Carlo with an old worthless dog that belonged to Mr. _____ who lived over the ridge about two miles away from us. We were very skeptical, for he had never been known to take up with a strange dog or stay away from home overnight. Grandpa said he would go over there and find out. So he saddle a horse and rode over to the place and sure enough, there he was with the old worthless dog and they were great friends. Grandpa asked the fellow when Carlo came to his place, and he said he was not sure but thought it was three days before, and wondered whose dog he was. Said he tried to make him leave but he couldn't (Grandpa didn't believe that part of it). After considerable persuasion, Grandpa got Carlo to come home with him, where we petted and fed him good and thought he would stay, but the next morning Carlos was gone again. He did not show up all day. Next day, Grandpa went over after him again and found him with the old dog. He brought him home and we watched him close and when night came we fastened him up in the corn crib, but he gnawed a hole big enough to crawl through and was gone back to the old dog. He was brought back again. The fellow said the old dog was worthless and he would get rid of him to save us further trouble. We kept Carlo penned up in a horse's stall for a few days to give the fellow time to get rid of the old dog and then let him out and he went away again that night. We waited thinking if the old dog was not there he would come back home, then went to look for him and the man said he had given the old dog to a man living near the mouth of White's Creek which was about a mile and a half from us. We went to see the fellow and found Carlo there with the old dog again. The fellow said he would try to drive Carlo home if he ever came back. Carlo was penned up for a few days and when he was let out he went back to his dog friend. Grandpa went after him again, and the fellow said he would take the old dog out and shoot him so as not to cause anymore trouble for us, the old dog was not any good for anything. And, that was what he done right after Grandpa left, but we didn't know it at the time. So we kept Carlo [penned up for a spell, then let him out and he went away and found the old dog where he had been shot and there he stayed howling and barking for about three days and nights until he got so weak and hoarse that Grandpa did not recognize him when he went after him and heard him barking. He went on to the house and inquired about Carlo and the fellow said he had not seen Carlo, that he had killed the old dog and left him out in the woods more than a quarter mile from the house three days ago, that barking had been going on out there for a long time, that is close to where he left the old dog. He said lets go out there and see what this barking is about. They went out near him and looked across a hollow from the ridge they were on and saw Carlo, but it didn't sound like him barking. They stopped to watch. Carlo would look around at something on the ground then he would bark a few times, throw up his head and howl the most pitiful sound you ever heard tow or three times, the he would sit still on his haunches, then repeat, more like crying than howling. He would get up then walk around to something on the ground take hold of it and try to drag it toward the house, then sit down on his haunches for a while, then he would bark and go through the same performance again. After they had watched for awhile they went on over where Carlo was. After they got near, Carlo saw them and bristled up ready to attack them. Then Grandpa spoke to him calling him by name and he recognized him and came running as fast as he could making noises more like crying than anything else. He was so weak he could hardly stand on his feet, but was glad to see him and wanted Grandpa to help with the old dog, for that was what it was on the ground and Carlo had been trying to drag it to the house. He had dragged it more than one hundred yards in that direction. The fellow said that he had heard him barking and howling for about three days and nights without let-up, and didn't think he had left to get water or food during the whole time. Grandpa had a job getting him home, he was so weak that he could go only a short distance at a time, would have to stop and rest then go a little ways and rest again moaning and whimpering like his heart was breaking all the time until they arrived at home, where he laid down like he was ready to give up the ghost. He was offered water, but was so exhausted that he could hardly take it. He just wanted to lie still. We offered him some food, but he would only take a very small amount. He took a little more the next morning and some water and would just lay around so weak and lifeless that we thought he was going to die. We kept persuading him to eat and he kept taking a little until he got so that he seemed more like himself, but not quite the same. In act, he never was his old self anymore. I don't remember just how long he lived afterward, but it seems to me now that it was not more than a year. He lost interest in life, didn't seem to care what took place around him. What puzzled us was his taking up with that old dog that just happened to come along one day, and his leaving home where he had lived nearly all his life to be with it. (Note: I wonder if Baxter ever stopped to think about an episode in his own life. He was born and raised on a farm here in Rhea County, only place he ever lived before marriage. He courted a lot of girls in Rhea and Roane County but, by chance, one day met and fell in love with Bertha East. Shortly thereafter, they were married and within an hour or so of the wedding, he and his bride boarded a train for Bozeman, Montana. He only returned to TN twice in his life. Maybe when he wrote the above, he was thinking about his own life-EC) Carlo lingered on listless for sometime. I don't remember for how long, but he seemed to get weaker until one day he was not seen around the house and I inquired about him and was told that he had been seen in the apple orchard up on the hill and I went to see and found him lying under an apple tree very quiet. I went to him and said, "Carlo, old fellow, what is the matter, are you sick?" He looked up at me piteful-like and sucked in his breath making a little noise like a moan. I says, "Carlo, are you hungry?" He just made another noise, very low and looked at me. I went to the house and came back with some of his favorite food and offered it to him and he took it in his mouth, turned his head to one side and laid it on the ground beside him, then looked up at me, as much as to say, "Thanks, but I can't eat it now." That was about the middle of the afternoon. Next morning, I started to go up to where I left him the day before and found him at the fence which had been let down for the calves to go through and found him there, where he laid down and died. It made me feel awfully sad to see him lying there stiff on the ground. I went back to the house and told the folks that he was dead and they were all sad. I think was my sister, Sally, and my little brother, Mack, that helped me carry him out to a grove of pine trees where we dug his grave between two young pine trees and buried him deep in the ground. Dad said years later that if he had known Carlo would grieve so much, he would have taken the old dog home with them and Carlo would have been happy at home. The end. Hugh Baxter Clack