Folks say Otis Ayers had the best quail-hunting dog around. One day Otis and his dog were out hunting when a covey of quail fluttered up and took shelter in an old hollow stump. His dog ran over, jumped up, put his paws over the exit of that stump to block the quail in, and then looked up at Otis and grinned.
Otis was delighted, “Oh, Dog, we’re going to have us a fancy hunt! When I say, ‘Pull!’ you let one loose.”
The dog woofed in agreement.
“Pull!” yelled Otis. His dog let one quail loose, and Otis shot it.
“Pull!” Again the dog let a single quail go.
Over and over, “Pull!”
Bang!
“Pull!”
Bang!
“Pull!” But the dog didn’t move. Otis was surprised. He knew there were more quail in the stump. So he said, “Oh, come on Dog. We’ve been having a good time. I said Pull.” Still the dog would not move.
Then Otis noticed his dog was not looking at him, but seemed to be looking at something just behind him. Otis turned around and standing there was the game warden. Sure enough, Otis had shot the legally allowed limit of quail, and that dog of his was not about to let Otis get himself in trouble with the law! Now, that’s a good dog.
Folks say one time Otis Ayers had a real good bird dog, but he lost it. It seems he and his prize bird dog were out hunting, when the dog disappeared. Otis looked and looked for his dog, but could not find it. Finally, he had to give up and head on home. He figured the dog would surely come home when it got hungry, but it didn’t.
The next year, Otis went out hunting in that same area. He was making his way through some tall weeds when he came upon his dog. Or, at least, he came upon the skeleton of his dog, bones still standing, still holding a point. Otis followed his dog’s point, and sure enough, he found the skeletons of a whole covey of quail.
I heard both of these tales from Butch Thompson, who was working the sound at an event at Doe Run Inn, in Meade County, Kentucky, in 1992. He heard these stories from Otis Ayers, who was a retired river boat captain who had worked for American Barge Lines.
Otis and his wife, Susie, were good friends of Butch’s parents. Otis and Susie had no children, but they always did lots of things for Butch. Susie even gave Butch his nickname. Both families had houseboats, camped on weekends together, and liked to pull practical jokes in a respectful way. As a teenager, Butch reports, he enjoyed being around them. Butch heard Otis tell these stories many times over the years. Butch also heard stories about Otis’s adventures on the river and other hunting escapades. While all the stories were tall tales, Otis always told them with an absolutely straight face, as if reporting facts.
I could tell from talking with Butch that Otis Ayers must have been a fine storyteller. When I asked about variations in the telling, Butch acknowledged that Otis always kept the gist of the story, but naturally varied the words some from telling to telling.1
Another version of the first “Otis Ayers Had a Dog” story can be found in The Harvest and the Reapers: Oral Traditions in Kentucky, by Kenneth and Mary Clarke. The story is recounted as an example of a tale told “in the big lie tradition.” In this version, a beagle herds quail into a groundhog hole and lets them out one at a time. There is no mention of the game warden episode. According to the book notes, this narrative would have come “from the Western Kentucky University Folklore and Folklife Collection or from the authors’ manuscripts of Kentucky folktales.”2
Another version of the second “Otis Ayers Had a Dog” story was reported to Leonard Roberts by Cleadia Hall, of Knox County, Kentucky, in 1956.3
Before working on this book I would have told you that I retell these stories pretty much the way Butch told them to me. However, when I interviewed Butch, I learned the person who owned the dogs was Otis Ayers, not Otis Haynes—the name I had mistakenly been giving him. I’ve now changed back to the real name because, as Butch observed, it would be wonderful for these stories and Otis Ayers, the man who delighted in telling them, to be remembered. I agree.4