When thinking about the bluegrass, there are a lot of things that make us who we are, but one thing that may not come to mind when you think Kentucky are dog mayors?

Well, maybe not in all of Kentucky, but then there's Rabbit Hash, an unincorporated community in Northern Kentucky with a population of less than 200.

Every four years, they host an election where anybody or anything can run, which means that the last six elections have been won by dogs.

Let's take a look at this small community and learn more about their canine mayorship.

[music playing] [music playing] Since 1998, the unincorporated community of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky has had an unlikely string of dog mayors.

That's right, dog mayors.

Now, since I began hosting this show, Rabbit Hash has been on my list of places to visit.

We visited the community on this show before and have even covered the dog mayors before, but I just had to know, what exactly does a dog mayor do?

So, I loaded up the Kentucky Life van and set off to meet Mayor Boone, Rabbit Hash's most recent election winner.

[music playing] [music playing] Mr.

Mayor, your 10 o'clock is here.

Mr.

Mayor, thanks for being with us today.

Can you give me the top - [barking] Really?

Okay.

Well, I haven't even asked the question yet.

Oh, you're already letting me have it, huh?

Mr.

Mayor, yes, I know you're upset and I know you're a little anxious about everything, but just hear me out, okay?

Mr.

Mayor, are you just gonna roll around during the course of this interview or are you gonna actually answer the question?

Now, Mayor Boone wasn't giving up much, but luckily he was joined by Dave Landwehr, who I got to speak with and learn more about the Bluetick Coonhound.

So, Dave, how did this dog mayor tradition start?

How did all this come about?

Well, it was the bicentennial for Boone County and Boone County reached out to different cities to do something special for the bicentennial.

And Rabbit Hash decided to have an election and nobody really wanted to be a mayor.

So, they decided to run dogs.

So, people didn't step up and the dogs had to step up to take the job.

They did.

And they became a fundraiser for the Rabbit Hash Historical Society.

So, what actually goes into being the dog mayor?

What does Boone have to do as part of his duties?

Part of Boone's duties is he meets people that come down to Rabbit Hash.

He helps raise funds for the four years in term.

He is just a spokesperson for the town and just, you know, kind of brings cheer to all the kids that come down as well.

What are Boone's favorability ratings with the public and Rabbit Hash at this point?

They love him.

They say he's the dog that saved Rabbit Hash.

That he saved Rabbit Hash?

Yes.

How so?

Because he's so popular?

No.

They had an erosion issue and they were losing a river bank, and a tree was getting ready to fall, and they were having big issues and didn't know how to fix it.

So, what we did as part of our campaign was our company, Structures Inc., donated labor and equipment.

Me and my son went down and worked on the river bank and we installed erosion protection measures, and the town gave Boone the value of that erosion protection as votes.

So, Boone's involvement in a lot of different things in the community, for example, water safety.

Tell me what he does there.

Yes.

He joined forces with Boone County Water Rescue, and he's promoting water safety and LifeVest.

So, that was part of his campaign was really water safety because Rabbit Hash is a river town, and Boone just lives right upriver in Constance, Kentucky, which is a river town as well.

At this point, the mayor let us know in no uncertain terms that he had an appointment to get to.

So, we loaded up everything and followed the mayor to meet the folks with Boone County Water Safety and Rescue.

[barking] As soon as I set foot on the dock, Mayor Boone let me know that I had made a crucial mistake in not wearing a life jacket.

So, as a result, I got suited up and went on our way to learn more about what Mayor Boone contributes to this operation.

So, Missie, how did Boone come to your all's group here?

So, Boone has been such a wonderful advocate for water safety, and we are a water safety organization.

So, Boone has been just instrumental in helping us promote the importance of wearing life jackets and safety on the water as well.

I mean, who cannot notice a dog in a bright orange life jacket and sometimes that inspires people to wear one themselves.

And what a great ambassador he is.

Agreed.

Absolutely.

After that, Mayor Boone had a couple more appointments to make, so next, we stopped up river so he could check and monitor the local ferries to make sure they were in tip-top shape.

Finally, we made our way past the Rabbit Hash General Store where Mayor Boone introduced us to the president of the Rabbit Hash Historical Society.

The mayor had other duties to attend to, so I stayed back for a conversation about the small river town.

You all have gotten a lot of attention for this.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Well, we have, [Laughs] and I think it's because politics is hard and this is at least making light of it and fun, you know.

We're an honest election, the one with the most money wins, bribery is fine and encouraged.

It's our biggest fundraiser.

We do it every four years to coincide with the national election.

And all the money raised is really what keeps the town the way that it is.

We're an old wooden town on the Ohio River - What could possibly go wrong, right?

█ so we've got to worry about flood and termites and fire.

And so, a lot of that is really just to help maintain town.

So, that's our biggest fundraiser, and so that's really the importance of the mayor.

Looking at Boone, what's the take on Boone?

What kind of a job is he doing?

How do you think he's holding up?

I think Boone came out strong from the get-go.

Like, even during the election, he was the candidate that was really really putting his heart into it, you know.

He saw what needed done and he started doing it, so that's a really admirable quality and something that definitely took notice around here.

So, how does it really bring the people of Rabbit Hash together around this dog mayor?

Is it something that people celebrate?

What's it do for the community?

So, the first election, I'll go back in time.

So, with the first election of Goofy, it definitely was about celebrating our bicentennial, our history, our heritage in Boone County and then being able to, you know, focus that in our community.

So, every election has sort of had that spirit where, you know, it's coming in.

It knows why it's here.

There's usually a mission behind each mayor.

It's important to the community, usually things important to the community.

So, whatever a pressing matter usually is with town and what the community wants to rally behind is kind of where we end up voting, we'll say.

[laughs] So, when the store burned down a few years ago, eight-ish years ago, you know, we had another election and that was about rebuilding and raising money to build that.

Right now, the river, as we've talked about, is, you know, a threat to the town, and so now we've, you know, that bank stabilization project was something huge we were working on.

So, of course, everyone is really grateful to that and supportive of Boone and what he's done.

At the end of what was a long day, Mayor Boone and I reconvened.

He took me to one of his favorite lookout spots on the banks of the Ohio River by Rabbit Hash.

Now, I can't say I envy the life of a dog mayor.

It was surprisingly busier than I had anticipated.

But sitting there with Boone and looking out on the river, I understood why he was the right dog for the job.

And hey, along the way, I think I might have made a new buddy as well.

[music playing]