Abused Women and Their Fabulous Dog Faced Kids.

Beating on women and animal seemed to be an accepted practice in many areas of the Appalachian Mountains when I arrived there decades ago. I opened a small animal shelter that I built from the ground up on 2 serene acres that began to look as much like cottages and gardens than your typical rescue.

Rarely was a photo taken of me as a young man without an animal in my arms.

After speaking with the folks who owned the local shelters for abused women as well as animal shelters I started to see a pattern. Women and animals were in the same boat and often pets were abused and even killed to keep battered women from seeking help and getting out. I started to work with local and state law enforcement to extract animals from abusive homes that were being held to coerce the women back. Before I knew it my shelter was serving every county in the state of Tennessee (52 of then) and I was working myself to death. I managed to rescue animals from some of the most dangerous situations imaginable even breaking police lines during stand-offs and simply walking to the door and asking for the animals. It often even worked and many times the man inside wanted to talk only just to me not the guys surrounding their homes with guns. I am proud of the work I did and managed to even secure a small grant the first of it’s kind in Tennessee to set up holding areas for pets in the women’s shelters who had traditionally just turned women who were unwilling to leave their pets away. I raised money through celebrity contacts and frequent publicity for my rescue efforts to build a unique open format shelter which was more like a home than a dog pound.

I bought, repaired and painted a vintage 70's school bus to rescue animals in.

The abusers threatened to harm and kill the animals if the women did not come hone and unfortunatly many times they did just that hanging dogs, shooting then and nailing them to trees. The violence and horrible extractions took their toll on me and a University hearing of a particularly violent case I handled offred me free psychological help for the Post Traumatic Stress disorder I was suffering from. Eventually I was pressured out by local law enforcement who wanted my land to expand a park and a sheriff whose brother I had implicated in one of the worst horse abuse cases I had ever witnessed. They made my life hell.  Shelters designed to help abuse victim’s dogs are called. “Safe Haven Programs,” and a list of them by state is at this link - http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/abuse_neglect/tips/safe_havens_directory.html

From 3 to 48 dogs/27 cats it was always a challenge. Here are my buddies at home..

Alligator Gars and Growing Up in a White Trash Swamp

TWISTED_CRITTER

Alligator Gar

by Zeke Loftin

The alligator gar is a living dinosaur reaching 15+ feet in length.

Alligator Gars (Atractosteus spatula) inhabit rivers/lakes primarily in the Southern United States. Considered “trash fish” by many anglers, they can grow upwards of ten feet in length and weigh over three hundred pounds. Their mouths are filled with two rows of sharp, inward angled rows of teeth that create the appearance of an alligator’s mouth, hence the name. The American Alligator and the Alligator Gar frequently inhabit the same waters.
I grew up swimming in the alligator-infested waters of the Trinity River in S.E. Texas and though alligators have been blamed on attacks of humans only one case of an alligator gar attacking a human seems to be possibly true, and that was a young girl on a pier in Louisiana splashing the water with her feet in the late 1800s and it probably thought her foot was a wounded fish thrashing on the surface. Though large alligators can be dangerous; especially if fed by ignorant humans, alligator gars are indeed scary looking but not a threat to swimmers. Only when pulled into a boat by an angler do they pose a threat—they are, after all, a powerful fish with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth and thrash in attempts to escape. They are frequently shot with a .22 rifle before being hauled aboard.
They appear to sun near the top of the water looking like small submarines from a distance. “Rolling,” or breaking the top of the water, is a frequent habit and they seem to be a surprisingly curious fish. They will approach humans if they hear splashing, probably suspecting the presence of a wounded fish or small mammal they could readily make a meal of.

Hunters are more concerned with killing the last of the true giants on the Trinity than preserving them.

Many old timers claim they have seen gar thirteen feet long, much bigger than the eight and a-half footers that have been landed and recorded. Gars are caught primarily on drop lines or cables fastened with turtle or shark hooks. The large alligator gar are now considered a sport fish by bow hunters and really massive gar are getting scarce due to, “gar guides,” bringing in archers from around the planet, even Saudi Arabia and Japan, who are interested in adding a trophy-size fish to their collection. Only now has the Texas Wildlife Department begun to try to regulate fishing/bow hunting for large gar since the massive, older fish, (to seventy-five yrs. in age) are rapidly disappearing from many areas. The Trinity River, in Texas, is one of their last strongholds and with no regulation they are being eradicated primarily by bow hunters. Growing up, we were told to throw any gar we caught onto the bank and simply let them die because they ate the game fish. Sadly, many people still do this.

The cypress swamp where I grew up and still own. Giant gar roam here.

I now appreciate the beauty of this prehistoric fish that I grew up with on the Trinity River and hope they will regulate the hunting of larger gar. I hope future generations can enjoy the thrill of seeing a fish the size of a canoe cruise by in the murky, green waters of a Southern river.

Illustration of gar courtesy of Duane Raver/USFWS – Originally printed in Twisted South Magazine

A Haunting in Holly Springs

Phoebe and Zeke in their antebellum home.

Nobody wants a ghost. Well, that is not exactly right people do want them nowadays they are very trendy. Tons of TV shows surround the paranormal and ghost busters looking all hip in their Global Rebels clothing are chasing around the country trying to see mist move or find a magnetic field whilst telling a creepy story to their viewers. We found out we had a ghost quite by accident and lets say he/she is not a ghost and just call it the, “thing,” for the sake of sanity.

My wife and I had some weird experiences in her fathers house before we were married and it is just accepted that the Jerry Lee Lewis Ranch has a ghost or two hovering about considering the history of the place. My wife feels like one of her dad’s ex-wives Shawn is still around and making herself known now and again. She OD’d while married to Jerry Lee at the Lewis Ranch in Nesbit, MS. and though her death was untimely the ghost of Shawn causes no trouble but seems to be active in the home according to my wife. As a note Jerry really loved Shawn and was very distressed about her death even flying her body to be buried in the Lewis family cemetery. Regardless of rumor, “The Killer,” is no killer.

Zeke and Phoebe the day they met at the Jerry Lee Lewis Ranch

When my wife and I married we moved to an antebellum home built in the 1840′s that has an even older foundation beneath the 170 or so year old home. This was our dream home. Lots of rooms and a master bath that was fashioned from a bedroom and though it looks old it is pure heaven. We rarely go upstairs we have a huge bedroom suite and the rest of the house just sits on it’s own most of the time. The upstairs we use to lodge our traveling friends primarily musicians, writers and photographers in and also as storage and a laundry room but most rooms up there are vacant 80% of the time.

Our first experience with our, “thing,” was when we were up very late watching TCM and not under the influence of anything stronger than chocolate. We heard this loud moan emanating from our basement which has a stairway that leads into the bedroom. It was such a comical, stereotypical ghost moan that we both began laughing hysterically. I remember saying, “You have got to be kidding me,” followed by more laughter and then a late night flashlight illuminated trip into what has been called, “The spookiest basement in Holly Springs, ” which turned up nothing that could make such a sound.

The second time we experienced the, “thing,” was when we were again in bed and night and we heard someone walking in the rooms above and then the Boom Boom Bang Boomp Boomp Boomp THUD of someone falling down the stairs. At first we thought it was our blind, red-bone coon hound Kelly but she was sound asleep at the foot of the bed and even a slight tap at the door makes her let out an earth shaking AAAARRRROOOOOOOOO sound that only coon hounds make. But NONE of the dogs even heard it. Again we investigated to find nothing and about every couple of weeks someone, or rather the, “thing,” takes a big tumble down the stairs and we still look but never find anything.

Then a guest came from Pennsylvania a woman who does our Twisted South Radio show and she is in the first floor guest room we call the, “weird room,” (Because my wife and I both collect unusual things and store them in there. From ancient Roman rings to pieces of plantation columns that are in ruin it all ends up in there,) and she looks disturbed and wild-eyed and is motioning me with her hands to come look. As I enter the room we are both looking at a box that is emitting scratching noises as if someone has thrown a cat in there and a small piece of paper on top of the box is spinning in circles for no apparent reason. I flip open the box and though I was not surprised to find nothing in there my guest Mars Blomgren was visibly shaken.

In the course of running Twisted South Magazine I meet some interesting people and a rock and roll photographer heard people marching up our large front steps one night while he was smoking on the porch. Our house was occupied at various times by Union and Confederate soldiers and used as a hospital during the Civil War so it is ripe I guess to be haunted so we just live with the, “thing,” and short of scaring our guests we rarely find the, “thing,” problematic. But during a civil war graveyard shoot we met some paranormal investigators and since this investigator assured me she first tries to find logical explanations first we agreed to allow them full access for an evening in our home last night. We had night vision cameras, magnetic sensors and recorders in what they considered to be the, “hot,” areas of our home. As usual while, “things,” were going on my wife and I were tucked into our big bed with the dogs having a pretty normal evening all considered. Some things happened last night and the investigators are now researching the material that they gathered. But regardless of the outcome we are here to stay and perhaps so is the, “thing.”  Maybe one day we will just let the, “thing,” fall violently down the stairs and not even bother to rise from the bed to investigate, But, we are still getting used to the place and the, “thing,” is still getting used to us. The thing is not the reason we have a multi-thousand dollar alarm system with a British accent. We are loners though most people do not realize that. My wife and I are one step above hermits most of the time and I think the, “thing,” perhaps can relate to that and considers us not

The fireplace is to the right of a massive cistern built by slaves in the early 1800's.

too much of a bother.

The very old graffiti on the horsehair plaster in our basement has unusual drawings and wording exclaiming in one area I DO LOVE MY WIFE near an odd numbered drawing of a box and what may read THE SINS OF WILLIAM which has been whitewashed over so we may never know what those sins were. Perhaps William is the, “thing .” Either way anyone who knows my wife and I knows we are way more bizarre than the average, ghost and we are not moving. I guess with all the recording devices on last night if the, “thing,” had anything to say we will be notified shortly.