Death by Dog

It was bound to happen eventually. An 88 year old woman from the next town south was killed by a pack of dogs.

http://www.waff.com/2019/03/01/woman-mauled-death-by-neighbors-six-dogs-tn/

After all of my trouble with the neighbor's dogs, I'm surprised that it didn't happen sooner or more often. After all, when I called, I was promptly ignored. Of course, I was also told to get a goat and just claim a livestock attack, but I tend to doubt that most people think in terms of setting up a situation that allows them to kill things and instead tend to rely on the law. I've learned that in Appalachia, that's a big mistake.
Apparently, the law had been out there numerous times on the dogs in question, but did nothing. Surprise, surprise. The county attorney is bringing criminal charges against the dog's owners, but my question is: Since they are the one tasked with maintaining the peace and have the responsibility and the ability to lay charges every time the law was called on the dogs, why didn't they? Aren't they therefore responsible for the death? Hopefully the family will find an attorney who sees things that way, but they'll need to leave the county to do so, and many Appalachians are afraid to do so.
It sounds like law enforcement and the county attorney were just letting things play out so they wouldn't lose any potential votes. Now that there has been a fatality, they're doing what they need to do to keep from losing more votes. Of course, a woman's dead, but what's a fatality compared to maintaining the social order of the hills.

Hillbilly House Movers

The other day, I got to sit in traffic for 45 minutes. I would understand if I were in a major city, but in rural Kentucky? Kentucky has had a lot of rain and flooding over the past couple of weeks. Not letting such things as wet ground get in the way, a group of hillbilly house movers decided they had the skills and equipment to put a mobile home in the middle of a field.

They did manage to move is a bit during this time, but that just resulted in the trailer getting unstuck from the ditch, only to get bogged down in the field. 

Eventually, they managed to get the mobile home out of the road, but it took about 45 minutes. The road you are looking at is the only road serving a couple of hundred structures. During this time, there was no law enforcement presence and no traffic control. Understandably, things happen. It just seems a bit troublesome that a group of hillbillies can come along and close a road for several hundred people for 45 minutes. It makes you wonder what else happens.

Legalized Theft

Kentucky is not the place to be if you want common decency or common sense. Today, I want to talk about the laws of adverse possession. Basically, this means someone taking land that belongs to you and getting a court to say that you don't own it anymore.
Now, I understand the need for such laws. After all, if the last deed to the property had references like the old oak tree, and Uncle Bille's outhouse, I can understand how the property lines would get a bit confused. And, if after a generation or two of working the same piece of land, it's found that one party has been using the same couple of acres as their own, then it only seems right to adjust the property lines accordingly.
Then we have Kentucky. Kentucky not only lets you claim the land after 15 years, but requires that you had knowledge that the land wasn't yours. That's right, under Kentucky law, you must show intent to deprive the other party of their land for 15 years before the state will give it to you. A simple mistake of the property line means no land for you.But, show intent to steal someone else's land, and Kentucky will give you title to it. Of course, all state, county, and city lands are exempt from this. I wonder why?

Cave People

A lot of the people in Appalachia live in trailers. With the warm weather, you'll notice an interesting thing about a lot of these trailers. They keep their doors open. I understand being poor and not having air conditioning, but in that case wouldn't you open a window, or put in a window fan? No, the windows stay firmly shut with the curtains drawn. The only source of air into the house is the open doorway, which for some reason is never used with a screen. When it gets really hot, the occupants of said dwelling will wander out onto the porch, and it's a common sight in the summer months to see the locals sunning themselves on the porch.

It reminds me of a nature show with the animals sunning themselves in front of their cave. Than or a caveman movie. You have to wonder whether these people are just so crime conscious that they are uncomfortable with windows that open (closer inspection would reveal a lot of them nailed shut), or whether they really can't handle more than one opening in a dwelling and they are trying to recreate a cave. It just seems so primitive.

Hillbilly Law

I like that title. Hillbilly Law. There should be a reality show with that name. It would probably be a huge success.

Apparently, Clinton county, Kentucky, has a new deputy sheriff. Sheriff Jim Guffey took his 10 year old son with him to serve an arrest warrant. I can understand taking your 10 year old son on a ride along. Clinton county isn't that dangerous. Dressing him up like a deputy and taking him to serve an arrest warrant on drug charges seems to be crossing the line of common sense. Letting him sign the prisoner into the local jail seems to imply a lack of any brain activity whatsoever.  I really don't know why the jailer deputy who let the paperwork get signed and the sheriff aren't out of work, but this is Kentucky and no one cares. Then they wonder why all the drug dealers move to Clinton county. I keep imagining officer Cartman on his Big Wheel.

Respect my Authoritah!!!

The news story can be accessed here:

http://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Clinton-sheriff-took-his-10-year-old-son-to-work-let-him-sign-jail-paperwork-377491201.html

Strange Hillbilly Vandalism

Sometimes it just gets strange in the hills. I was changing the oil on my car the other day when I noticed that someone had drawn an anarchy symbol on the bottom of my oil pan. WTF? I can understand breaking windows and cutting brake lines, but avoiding security cameras, risking a confrontation with an armed homeowner, and crawling underneath a car just to draw a gotcha on an oil pan? Curiouser and curiouser.

It Mine!!!!!

My new neighbors have a pet. A cute little hound dog. Well he would be cute if his ribs weren't showing and he wasn't covered with scabs. Taking care of your animals is not an Appalachian trait. Only collecting large quantities of them.

Of course the dog spends its days wandering the neighborhood and his nights chasing the cows of the farmer over the hill. I don't know why he hasn't been shot yet. He started off with a collar. For those of you not from Appalachia, that does not mean a license and rabies tag. A collar alone denotes ownership. Licenses and rabies shots are for foreigners (meaning anyone who lives outside of the county and in some cases anyone who lives off of the street). Of course he slipped his collar. This not being allowed, he next was put in a training harness and left to run free. It was kind of pathetic watching him get caught on things and struggling to get loose. He eventually got out of that and the neighbors freaked.

I was kind of amusing to watch the family drive up and down the street in an attempt to get the dog. They finally caught him and drove him home. Not wanting him to run off again, they stayed outside and watched him for a half hour. Then they got bored and went inside. It's hard to believe that anyone can be that stupid, but you can't ignore the evidence.