Page 28 - Gene Lyons News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The Times-Reporter My most memorable New Year's Day took place five years ago on a cold, clear morning in another life. We awoke to find a 30-acre lake where there had been pasture the night before. The Arkansas River had been rising ominously for days, and when it got high enough, it always backed up the bayou into our place. But nobody remembered seeing it quite so high. Only about 10 acres around the house and barn remained high and dry. I looked for my favorite cow, Trudy, who'd been due to give birth. A great beauty with a sweet disposition, Trudy loved having her ears scratched. Her bes...

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The Times-Reporter What got me remembering Big Red was an evocative photo in the Little Rock newspaper. Taken by staff photographer Steve Swofford, it depicted a black Lab doing what only a retriever would do on the coldest day of the winter: plunging into the Arkansas River to fetch a decoy. In bright sunlight, with Pinnacle Mountain in the background, you could even see the fanatical gleam in the dog's eyes. How we came to own Big Red was that Diane encountered him on her way to work. He was running along the street near the freeway entrance, pawing at people's car doors: a handsome young g...