Kristie & Harper Lee @HarperLeeTheCur

Today’s episode is with Kristie, the dogmom to Harper Lee @harperleethecur, a catahoula leopard dog living among the lowlands and wetlands in the motherland of central Louisiana. Historically, the Catahoula leopard dog is the only species of dog know to have originated in Louisiana.

Most of their time is spent walking and exploring the community of Lafayette. Kristie, as a photographer finds inspiration in the unique backgrounds in and around town, often with degraded old buildings, street art, and plenty of intrinsically southern scenes. Going beyond digital, Kristie shoots quite a bit with film and even uses both medium format and a large format camera for some of her photography and Harper just happens to be a terrific subject. She even develops her own film at home and, most likely, Harper joins her in the darkroom.

When they have time to hike, especially on the weekends, they love to go to several spots close by. One is Acadiana Park and Nature Station on the north side of Lafayette. In the 143 acre park, there are six miles of trail for hiking. Just a few miles to the east is Lake Martin, surrounded by bayous, canals, and Cypress Island Preserve. The preserve is 95,000 of swamp and hardwood forest with levee trails and a boardwalk. Of course some of the things to look out for in these areas is alligators and snakes, as well as being aware of the hunting seasons.

About an hour to the north is Kisatchie National Forest which has five ranger districts. The two spots they visit the most are the Kisatchie Ranger District and the Calcasieu Ranger District near Alexandria. Just outside the national forest is Indian Creek Recreation Area which offers an astounding 100 acres of developed recreation facilities, 250 acres of primitive camping, and 100 campsites along the 2,250 acre Indian Creek Lake! Close by are several trails including Kincaid Lake Trail which is a nine mile loop around Kincaid Reservoir. The Wild Azalea Trail is a 26 mile trail through Kisatchie National Forest. In the episode, we also talk a little about Catahoula National Wildlife Refuge and Catahoula Lake.

Her shout outs go to Kevin & Nola @catahoudat, Nessie McNubbins, Frankie Lou & Ali @nessie_mcnubs, Gentle Ben @thetenderestbenjamin, Coop and Monte @mycoopdawg, and Eric @louisianahikes.

Thanks for listening!

In the intro to the episode, I talked about several things including flushable PVC dog waste bags. Here are a few links to the research that I did.

USDA “Composting Dog Waste.” Natural Resources Conservation Service. nrcs.usda.gov, December 2005

University of Minnesota. “Nitrogen, phosphorus from fertilizers and pet waste polluting urban water.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 April 2017

“It’s Time to Talk About Dog Poop; Pet waste has become a major pollutant, both outdoors and at home.” Outside Magazine. outsideonline.com, 27 March 2018

“Implementation Plan for the Fecal Coliform TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load)
for Four Mile Run, Virginia.” Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. deq.virginia.gov, 31 March 2004

“Phosphorous removal from wastewater.” Lenntech USA LLC. lenntech.com

“Polyvinyl alcohol.” Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org, 21February 2020