
DATE: Sunday, May 25, 1997                  TAG: 9705220250

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 40   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: BEACH PEOPLE 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, CORRESPONDENT 

DATELINE: OCRACOKE ISLAND                   LENGTH:   75 lines

PLAYFUL POOCH ``BOW-WOWS'' CROWDS ON OCRACOKE ISLAND

They call him Buck.

``His real name is Baryshnikov,'' Russ Newell says about his 125-pound Chesapeake Bay retriever. ``I used to know how to spell it. But you're going to have to look it up now.''

No wonder they call him Buck.

While Newell explains the name, Buck stands - smiling - nearby. The dog's hairy head is above Newell's waist. He pants in the warm morning sun in front of the Island Inn on tiny Ocracoke Island, his heaving head and jaws looking more like those of a bear than a dog.

Buck isn't the normal bronze of a Chesapeake Bay retriever, either. His coat is a shade they call marsh - sort of a grayish, brownish and something-otherish color.

Normally, dogs don't get much play in the papers.

But 9-year-old Buck does something a little different than other hunting dogs.

``I quit duck hunting and switched to golf,'' Newell says.

So his dog did, too.

Buck fetches golf balls now instead of retrieving dead ducks.

To demonstrate his pet's prowess in front of a small crowd gathered in front of the inn, Newell throws a golf ball into some tall, thick brush on the other side of the small road. After a couple of long-legged leaps, Buck lunges into the brush. He's invisible for a few minutes while he sniffs out his little white prey. The bushes rattle as if Sasquatch were digging for grub worms.

Finally, Buck emerges and lopes over to Newell, opening his maw to reveal a slimy golf ball. The small, adoring audience expresses reserved appreciation.

But Buck, apparently, is not as popular with golf course attendants.

His mammoth-sized paws are about as gentle on golf greens as a monster truck is on a mud bog.

After Buck's been on a course one or two times, the officials always ask Newell not to bring him back.

So the diligent dog goes back to his day job at the Island Inn, greeting guests and smiling - like his master.

Newell also tells funny stories and reads some of his poetry and short stories to unsuspecting audiences eating dinner in the inn's restaurant.

Buck doesn't tell stories. But by the time they leave, most Island Inn guests have plenty of stories to tell about their hairy host.

``He greets everybody here at the Island Inn,'' Newell says of his pet pooch. ``Some of them don't even want greeting.''

Buck's outgoing nature - and great golf ball getting talents - have made him famous as far away as Pennsylvania. He may not be a trained television star. But to Ocracoke residents and visitors, at least, he's a big dog who's still having his day.

``I was driving through Pennsylvania and Buck was in the back of the truck,'' Newell said. ``Somebody pulled up beside us on the freeway and yelled: `Hi, Buck.' They knew him.''

But Newell didn't know the driver.

The Buck show is about over for the morning when Newell orders its star into the back of his beat up pick-up truck. The truck bed sinks several inches as Buck obeys his master.

Tomorrow, this happy hunter will be back on center stage again - rescuing golf balls from the wild. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JEFF HAMPTON

Russ Newell, of Ocracoke, and his dog Buck, at the Island Inn in

Ocracoke.

Graphic

HOW TO SEE HIM

Who: Buck the dog

What: Greetings and golf ball fetching

Where: The Island Inn on Ocracoke Island, off N.C. 12

When: Almost every morning and some early afternoons

Call: (919) 928-4351