Melody '95: a survivor  /  Illustration by Rosemary Coates

From The Hound Intelligence Series, published by Hounds Magazine (UK), edited by Deirdre Hanna, illustrated by Rosemary Coates. Click to purchase the 333-page collection.

Brazos Valley Melody (Deep Run Butler ’91 ex Mission Valley Gamely ’92) was an English bi*ch―half fell hound and half Modern English―whelped by huntsman Tommy Jackson at the Mission Valley Hunt (KS). Butler, Melody’s sire, was all fell blood, top and bottom of his pedigree, from the Eskdale and Ennerdale kennels in Cumbria. This is a storied foot pack with rugged hunting territory in England’s Lake District on the English-Scottish border. Gamely, Melody’s dam, was Modern English with bloodlines back to the Hamilton and Ottawa Valley Hunts in Canada.

Tommy drafted Melody, heavy in whelp, to Sandy Dixon, MFH and huntsman of the Brazos Valley Hounds (TX). Melody had been bred to Mission Valley Nero ’95, an American dog hound with mostly Penn-Marydel blood. The handover occurred at the end of the 1995 Central States Hound Show, which both hunts were attending. For the journey home to Brazos Valley, Melody was put into a travel kennel with the rest of Sandy’s hounds that had been at the show. 

Sandy Dixon continues the story of an extraordinary journey.