Welcome to Tall Tales with Jack! Jack, that's me, a feisty black and white Chihuahua. I'm in the country legally although my ancestors immigrated from the Province bearing my name hundreds of years ago.

I am proud of my lineage and roots. My family was here to welcome the Spanish Conquistidors to the New World in the 15th Century.

My relatives and I have had numerous conversations about the arrival of the Spanish and whether we should have bit them on the ankles and sent them home or whether their arrival was a bonus for our way of life.

In retrospect, it didn't turn out to well for our human brothers and sisters; they all died as a result of the infectious diseases the Spanish shared with us upon their arrival.

Another problem for us was we couldn't get rid of the invaders anyway because their leader Cortez burnt all the boats so they couldn't return even if we had asked them too. So here we are, living peacefully with each other on what has come to be known as the NAFTA Continent.

My companion and I, "The Big Guy," have travelled across the country from east to west and north to south and boy have we had some experiences. Although I can't wait to climb into my perch in the motor home, I never know from one mile to the other whether or not we'll make it to the next pit stop in one piece.

We are photographers of nature and our life is spent tracking and creating images of interesting and exciting people, places and subjects in the wild and not so wild places we find along our routes.

Speaking of routes; we never use the Interstate, instead we use the Blue Highways and the dirt back roads of America, Canada and Mexico as our treasure troves for images, stories and features.

My column is intended to be a catharsis. I need to share my adventures with you because no one else would believe some of the adventures "The Big Guy" gets us into.

No one that is other than the U-Haul Trailer Company who honored us with a feature on their web site after we did a magnificent job of recording the migration of threatened semipalmated sandpipers in Shepody Bay, in New Brunswick, Canada.

Shepody Bay is the western most point of the magnificent Bay of Fundy and a major re-fueling stop-over point for the little birds on their way from the breeding grounds in the Canadian Artic to their wintering grounds in South America. I'm tired thinking of how far these little 20g. birds travel during the course of a year...whew!

Now that I have introduced myself and that other guy, I call my driver, I promise I'll have another column for you to enjoy very soon. I have the stories but at the moment my driver is calling, we are scheduled to hit the trail looking for another Tall Tale, in a few minutes. Stay tuned, I'll be back soon.

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