About Beulah
A very special dog.
Beulah Walters
In every dog owner’s life, who is of a caring and considerate nature, without question there is always one “Special” dog that stands out head and shoulders above all the others. It is a dog that touches your heart, that is so loving and so loved that it becomes an integral part of the family and when that dog passes, it is as deeply and agonizingly painful as losing a child or other family member. These “Special” dogs may be the most memorable of all because of their intelligence, their loving nature, their beauty, their loyalty and devotion, their strength, their athletic abllity, or some other attribute that made them unique to their human above all other dogs.
A Best Friend
Beulah Walters was such a dog. Her father was a bull mastiff and her mother was a pit bull. So she was a large dog with great beauty, athletic ability, strength, stamina and determination, but she had a gentle and loving nature. She was careful and tolerant of little children and even seemed to be fond of cats. Beulah was fiercely loyal; and she was never aggressive unless it was to defend herself, her territory or her family. One of Beulah’s exemplary traits was extreme intelligence, and another was her dignity. A family friend once said about Beulah that she was the smartest dog he had ever been around, and that she seemed more like a person than a dog. Beulah had a large vocabulary and spelling things you did not want her to understand did not work for very long. Beulah did not do “tricks” – her family believed that she considered such things beneath her dignity. If you asked her to “sit” or to do some other dog trick, she would look at you with an exasperated expression that said: “Get real! You know better than to ask me to do that!”.
Beulah loved to fish
However, the most unique of her traits was that she loved to fish more than she loved to eat. She would quit in the middle of a meal to get in the boat and go out on the water. Her “Man” said that she was the best fishing buddy a guy ever had. He said that she never complained, was always enthusiastic, and she never told any tall fishing tales. She fished all day long as hard as any human fisherman. She barked (or spun around, or both) on the first cast of the day and the last cast. She only rested between fishing spots. If you were fishing with a top water plug or a popping cork, she would get low and point it like a bird dog on a covey of quail. When a fish was boated, she would take it away from you if she could – she could lick the scales off of a trout in nothing flat. She also knew to stay away from a “bad fish” like a stingray, catfish or a shark. She also taught her sister, Bonzo, to love fishing.
Beulah watched the river behind her home for schools of Jacks, and barked excitedly to summon a fisherman when she spotted one. If you did not respond timely, she gave you a really disgusted look. Beulah could tell the difference between marauding Jacks and Garfish activity. Click here to see Beulah’s fishing pictures.
Beulah became a popular icon on the river
During her life, Beulah became a familiar face on the Withlacoochee River, and with the creation of this web site her popularity grew and she became an icon for the fishing community in the Yankeetown area. People on the river knew and recognized Beulah that did not know her "Man". Riding down the river on her boat ("Beulah's Boat"), people would speak to, or hail Beulah by name and merely wave at her "Man". Because the sound of a barking dog carries well on the water, the local fishermen and guides always knew when Beulah was out fishing. She was the only dog ever personally invited to the annual Yankeetown Marina Christmas party. As her fame grew, a reporter and a photographer from theTampa Tribune came to Yankeetown to do a story on Yankeetown's FishingDawg. Click here to read the on-line version of the article that was published on the front page of the Metro Section of the paper. Beulah was also "immortalized" in Back Roads, a book published about the area by Betty Berger.
