Sitting on the tailgate of a Dodge pick-up truck late one night, four men laugh, tell stories, spit tobacco and enjoy their favorite sport—fox hunting.
Luther Minix, a 59-year-old grocery store owner, raises and hunts trig hounds.
“I enjoy raising them and seeing ‘em grow up,” he said of his 25 dogs.
He raises the dogs on a small farm and feeds them ham slices and dry dog food each evening.
During the day, Luther and his wife, Betty, run the Minix Mart, a small grocery store at the edge of town.
There, Luther proudly displays trophies from dog shows on the top shelf behind the cash register.
Each of his fogs their keep by tracking or “mouthing” a fox’s trail on the weekends. “The reason I like trig hounds is because they have better mouths,” Luther said.
Minix knows each dog by the sound of its bark even from miles away and can tell which dog is on the right track.
“Sometimes deer throw them off the trail.”
The next morning the hounds will return where they were dropped off, and Luther will herd them into the back of his truck.
The event is purely social. The four friends bundle up and chew the fat.
