Exploring Art Greg Harkins Chairs

the dogs are taught what’s necessary in their new environment to be an effective police dog. “We don’t try to change what they’ve already learned as far as voice commands,” Brown says. “They’ve usually had a year or so learning how to respond to situations in a European language, often Dutch or German, or East European, and we continue to use those commands. We do, though, add a couple of English words, like ‘come’ so that the dog learns that he’s to come to the officer either for correction or for reward.”

K-9 officers constantly monitor their dog’s diet, water, break times, and weight. Their food is not full of fillers, like commercial dog food, but mostly a protein-packed all-meat diet because, after all, they’re athletes. The dogs are fed usually once a day, at end of the day, and all K-9 vehicles are air conditioned and left running constantly for the dogs’ comfort. The K-9 dogs ride in enclosed portions of the vehicles and have blankets or beds. Though its easy to picture German Shepherds like the famous Rin Tin Tin as the standard breed of police dog, successful K-9 unit can come from a variety of breeds. “Some of the dogs we purchase are Belgian Malinois, occasionally a German or Dutch Shepherd,” Brown says. “But we prefer the Malinois. Some dogs are bred for best features and traits, and they work just fine. However, all of the best dogs are bred in Europe where the best bloodlines are.” Although the police and sheriff’s departments have funds available for purchasing a K-9 unit, the dogs are not cheap by any means. “Dogs can cost anywhere from $6,000 to $13,000, maybe even more depending on how far the dog has advanced through training and the related kennel costs, how much it cost to fly the dogs from Europe to the U.S., get them through customs and more,” Brown says. “All of which adds to the final price for the dog.”

Mike Lee is a writer, photographer, artist, and poet. He lives in Hernando, Miss.

A Greg Harkins highchair for babies

The Art and Craft of Bodging Chairs

Michele D. Baker | Photography courtesy Claire Hansen, Sam King and Michele Baker

A Mississippi native makes furniture by hand to last a lifetime, just like his ancestors and mentors taught him.

Each of Greg Harkins’ handmade chairs comes with a guarantee: as long as he lives, Harkins will repair or replace each one he has made. Given that he started nearly 50 years ago, even he can’t guess how many chairs that adds up to. What Harkins does remember with daily gratitude is the line of chair-makers stretching back to the 1800s, revered forerunners whose techniques he has worked hard to master and to pass forward. After graduating from Mississippi State, Harkins assumed he would continue to graduate school. In the meantime, he moved into a cabin near Canton on property originally owned by his great-great-great-grandparents. There, he connected with a master chair-maker who took him under his wing. Three years later, Harkins had forgotten all about college.

A bodger is a master wood craftsman and chair-maker. Harkins began as an apprentice under bodger Tom Bell, who made his living building chairs for 67 years, much of that time without electricity in his shop. “Tom used to make almost 200 chairs per month and sell or trade them from the back of a horse-drawn wagon,” says Harkins. “He was 11 years old when he and his brother began making chairs. I don’t make that many because I usually work alone.”

Now 45 years later, Harkins is the master, preserving a level of craftsmanship rarely seen in these days of mass