Murdaugh trial: Apologies to Bubba, the egg-suckin’ dog

WALTERBORO – Four weeks into the Lowcountry’s trial of the century, one witness remains unassailable in a roiling sea of gruesome facts and family shame: Bubba the egg-suckin’ dog.

He’s the yellow Lab who ran by with a chicken in his mouth less than five minutes before the heinous shootings of Paul Murdaugh and his mother, Maggie, near the kennels at Moselle, a Murdaugh family spread near Hampton.

Alex Murdaugh sits each day flanked by high-priced lawyers in a comfortable old courtroom that is much like a church, fighting off charges that he murdered his wife and son.

Murdaugh is a now-disbarred lawyer from three generations of Lowcountry prosecutors who ruled the roost for 86 years in this same courtroom. And he is, according to testimony, an alibi machine, a witness manipulator, a serial liar, a thief who stole from his closest friends as well as “the least of these” in society, and an expert in “the art of bullshit.”

He claimed repeatedly he was nowhere near the kennels on the tragic night of June 7, 2021.

But Bubba busted him, thanks to a video Paul took as one of his last acts on earth. In the video, you can hear Alex at the kennels calling Bubba after Maggie hollered that Bubba had a bird in his mouth. She thought it was a guinea.

And so I concluded when first reported: “But for Bubba the egg-suckin’ Lowcountry dog slinking through history at that precise moment, Alex Murdaugh’s whereabouts may never have been documented.”

That’s when the feathers flew.

‘Unfounded slur’

“I read with pleasure your recent article ‘Lowcountry ways. ..’ appearing in the Feb. 5 issue of The State (Motto: ‘Yesterday’s news tomorrow’). A largely accurate portrayal of all of us, and not just in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

“I would like to offer a thought on dogs and guineas, should you ever have cause again to address their relationship as a topic.

“ ‘Egg-suckin’ dog’ is about the worst thing that can be said about a dog. Bubba the yellow Lab may have killed a guinea, but there’s no indication that he was ‘egg-suckin’; in fact, no indication that he is other than an outstanding beast.

“Growing up out in the country, we kept a flock of guineas, as well as eatin’ and layin’ chickens. Our bird dogs never bothered the chickens or their eggs, but were very prone to having at the guineas, usually unsuccessfully, who could fly and easily evade them.

“Why the guineas? They are semi-domesticated wild birds and therefore more attractive to wild bird-hunting dogs? Or did the guineas’ infernal racket offend the dogs? To their credit, guineas properly prepared are delicious.

“Anyway, I suggest that Bubba didn’t deserve the unfounded slur of ‘egg-suckin’ dog.’ I hope your closing comment, ‘You can’t break an egg-suckin’ dog’ was leveled at Murdaugh father and son.

“Best regards, Ned …”

I responded that when we moved to the Lowcountry right out of college in 1975, we lived in a rural area outside Ridgeland. We got a Lab-ish dog and soon our neighbor Zenith accused him of chasing her chickens.

I insisted that couldn’t be true because Cannon was raised a good Christian dog, but soon Cannon came home with bird-shot burns in his hide to prove his evil ways.

And soon after that I found chicken feathers, then chicken parts, in the yard.

When I went to make amends with Zenie, she said: “You can’t break an egg-suckin’ dog.”

Maybe our Cannon wasn’t sucking eggs as well as killing chickens, but I felt if Zenie could say that about Cannon, it could apply to Bubba.

Maybe I owe Bubba an apology.

Hog hunting

Bubba has continued to make it into the record at the trial of the century.

On Tuesday, it came when Dale Roger Davis Jr. sat in the witness stand.

He lives near Moselle and was hired to keep kennels with dogs with names like Armadillo and Grady.

He’s the one who had the best line in the trial so far:

Highly paid lawyer: “When you’re hunting hogs with dogs, I don’t think you can use a gun, can you?”

Dale: “Oh, yeah, you can use a gun.

“Unless you man enough to go in there and catch him by the foot and bring him out.”

He defended Bubba’s character but was asked if Bubba chased chickens.

He said, “Until Alex got a rooster.”

He said the rooster “aggravated the dogs to death.”

He was asked what happened to the rooster.

“Either Grady got him or Bubba. I can’t remember which one got him.”

None of us know who dunnit in the double-murder. We owe Bubba for shedding light on who was there.

And none of the roosters in the courtroom have caught him yet.

This story was originally published February 16, 2023 at 11:38 AM.