Rabbit Dogs and Good Eats

I remember the first day that “Mr. Matthews” was at The Retreat because it happened to be a Greyhounds & Grey Hairs day.  I met his daughter in the parking lot as I was arriving and she was leaving.  She had been getting him settled in and, understandably, was rather upset with this major life change.  When she saw Cosmo and Mr. Spock, she smiled a little through her tears.  She was so glad to learn that he would get some regular canine visitors because her father had always loved dogs so much.

I met Mr. Matthews when I went inside.  It was the first of many wonderful visits.  He always looked so cute in his fedora and denim overalls.  As soon as he saw Cosmo and Mr. Spock, he would say, “I had a couple just like them.”  I don’t know exactly what kind of dogs he had, but they were rabbit dogs.  He affectionately described how they knew it was time to hunt as soon as he got out his gun.  Even if I heard the same story every time we visited, I was happy knowing that he was having some happy memories.

After Mr. Matthews had fondly reminisced about his rabbit dogs on a number of our visits, one day he described cooking what he hunted.  He loved rabbit, squirrel, ‘coon, and possum.  I asked him, “Isn’t possum really greasy?”  He replied, “It’s good!”  Then he started to explain how you cook a possum.  After you clean it (no instructions on that, thankfully), you put it in a big pan with some grease.  Actually, you use two pans – I’m not sure if that’s because you have more than one possum, or maybe you have a side of ‘coon.  That’s as far as he got with the recipe.  It’s probably just as well.  I was glad to go home to my supper of chili and baked potato.