THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 4, 1995 TAG: 9510030084
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Linda McNatt
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
If you travel across the James River Bridge from the Peninsula and take a right-hand turn onto Smith's Neck Road, you'll soon know you're in the country.
That's not just because of the large rural lots and winding, two-lane road. It's because of the two white, black and tan coon hounds barking up the tree on the side of the road and the frightened-looking raccoon in the top of what appears to be a dead tree.
The sculpture that seems dedicated to the lifestyle of many in Isle of Wight was erected in August by Gail West as a birthday gift to her son, Ben.
And it has become a traffic-stopper.
``People slow down when they see it,'' West said recently. ``I've even seen them turn around and pull up in my driveway.''
``We've even had people come by and take pictures of it,'' said 15-year-old Ben, a ninth-grader at Smithfield High School.
West found the carved, wooden hounds and ring-tailed critter on Mercury Boulevard in Hampton, offered for sale by a roadside furniture salesman from High Point, N.C. When West inquired, he would tell her only that the artist lived in High Point, but he wouldn't reveal his - or her - name.
West said she was struck by the hounds and coon because the dogs reminded her of her son's dog, Peanut, a beagle-Bassett mix with big feet, legs too short for its body and long, floppy ears.
Ben dreamed of training the dog to coon hunt when he bought the pup last fall, even though a local veterinarian told him Peanut probably was not proportioned well enough to ever become a woodland athlete.
But Peanut tried to live up to his young master's dreams. He loved to chase rabbits and cats, Ben said. But he never knew the scent of a coon.
That's because Peanut was killed, struck by a car or a truck, on Sept. 18.
``He never went in the road,'' Ben said. ``There was a guy out front whose car had broken down. He came up to the house to use the phone. I guess Peanut followed him.''
No vehicle stopped when the dog was hit, Ben said. A family friend found Peanut on the side of the road.
Peanut, Ben's mother said, was her son's best friend and constant companion. So even though the wooden hounds cost more than she had planned to put into a birthday gift for her son, they were irresistible. Now that Peanut is gone, she's glad she made the purchase.
West originally planted the artwork on the right-hand side of her front yard. But the small house where she and her son live is on one of those winding curves on Smith's Neck, and several people mentioned that so many cars were slowing down to look, it was creating a traffic hazard.
West decided to move the artwork. Besides, the original paint, in just a few short weeks, had started to fade. So she took the sculptures to artist Sandy Johnson in Rescue for a repainting that retained the original white, black and brown, just like Peanut.
And the hounds and coon, which appear to have been carved with a chain saw or an ax from heavy wood, were relocated on the opposite side of the yard - well away from the curve.
Last week, in a kind of memorial ceremony, the dogs got collars to make them look even more realistic. One had belonged to Peanut.
People who see the sculptures on Smith's Neck Road can't help but notice.
Now they know the rest of the story. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by LINDA McNATT
Ben West's two carved 'coon dogs are a real traffic stopper.
by CNB