A wonderful portrait of Ronnie Prudhomme's wife, Connie, used to hang above the mantel in their home in Scott. The portrait there now is of Roux, a chocolate Labrador retriever.
But 90-pound, 3-year-old GRHRCH UH Dakota's Cajun Roux is not just any chocolate Lab. He's one of the youngest grand champion hunters ever, soon to be a star of the WaterDog television show, and is obviously Ronnie's pride and joy - and Connie's, too.
(For the uninitiated, GRHRCH stands for Grand Hunting Retriever Champion, and UH stands for Upland Hunter. It is virtually unheard of for a dog to acquire these titles as early as Roux did in his hunting career.)
"My dad and I raised dogs for many years," said Ronnie Prudhomme, vice president and chief estimator for Lafayette Steel Erector, "but this dog is really something special."
Ronnie didn't want to get Roux at first; it was Connie who insisted.
"In June 2002 our black Lab Bully died, and Connie and I were devastated," Ronnie said. "Connie ran every day, and Bully ran with her. Bully and I hunted together and he quite often traveled with me on business trips.
"Connie insisted that we find another pup, but I couldn't handle the thought of another dog yet and told her so.
Connie didn't listen.
"She told me that I needed to get over Bully and that she was going to get one."
She found a litter in Anacoco in Vernon Parish and Ronnie "grudgingly" went to see it. Gary DeJean, whose black Lab, Star, was mother of the litter, already had picked out a replacement for Bully. But, Ronnie had another idea.
There was only one chocolate Lab in the litter. In fact, it was the only chocolate Star had ever birthed.
"He was the most agile of the litter, as well as the largest and strongest, but Gary thought nobody would want him because chocolates have a reputation as not hunting as well as black Labs," Ronnie said.
Roux, he said, is going to change that idea.
"Roux will change people's minds about chocolates," said Bill Autrey, Roux's trainer. "For a long time they were bred for color. Well, this one was bred for brains as well as color. The talent is there to put proof in the pudding."
Part of that proof has been in Roux's performance in the Super Retriever Series - the Superbowl of the retriever world. He's set records there that remain standing.
Some other people have agreed with Ronnie's assessment of Roux's talents and potential, including Shannon Nardi, producer of the 30-minute WaterDog show that airs on the Outdoor Life Network. She made a trip to Gueydan last month with WaterDog host Justin Tackett to film a hunt with Ronnie and Roux. The segment will be aired in the fall.
"I have to say without hesitation that Roux is the most handsome chocolate Lab I have ever seen," Nardi said in written comments about the Gueydan hunt. "He is Hershey Dark Chocolate and has golden eyes that are magnificent like the sun. ... I think Roux knows that he is the apple of Ronnie's eye."
Tackett called Roux "without a doubt one of the finest, most talented young dogs in the country."
Nardi and Tackett found their way to Gueydan - which they now enumerate as one of the top five places to hunt ducks in the United States - partly because Roux is so extraordinary and partly because Ronnie is not.
"A lot of hunting shows always have certain big name people that they use," the producer said. "We like to use just the everyday guy who likes to go out and hunt. I think that relates to a lot more people, because a lot of people can't go to the big luxury lodges. It's nice to put together a story that will relate to the to the majority of people who watch it."
Prudhomme, who claims he "didn't know for years that there was anything much more than marsh," has been an avid duck and goose hunter since his youth.
Hunting with Roux makes it even better, he said.
He's a grand champion and a great companion, but he's also my hunting dog, Ronnie said. "He loves it, and I love it."
He recognized a special talent when Roux was just a pup and brought in Autrey, one of the premier trainers in the country. Ronnie had taken Roux into the marsh and found him to be a natural hunter.
When he saw how early and how well Roux was exhibiting championship behavior, he decided to put him into Autrey's special training program even though he was much younger than most dogs who begin that training.
The rest, as they say, is history - and promising future.
A wonderful portrait of Ronnie Prudhomme's wife, Connie, used to hang above the mantel in their home in Scott. The portrait there now is of Roux, a chocolate Labrador retriever.