Looking Back And Looking Ahead

                                                       Looking back the setters and I certainly had a wonderful life together. Actually the experiences we had exceeded my imagination of what our time together would be like. As I look into the crystal ball that sits on my bedroom bureau it serves as a reminder to me that the future is only limited by my own imagination.

Mick taking a break west of the old windmill with Beau and Molly in the background. We started our sharptail season here for many years. Seeing 100 to 150 birds a day was common before CRP acres started to vanish. What a time we had!

                                                        As each dog passes I'm reminded that there are beginnings and endings always and that it's important to celebrate both. They are reminders of how to make the most of your time. The incredible experiences we remember and cherish in our lives always require the courage to make decisions to take the first steps on any journey. If I had done a cost analysis of what this journey would have cost me in real time and money from a practical view point it may have been easy to not write that check. But then what would I have had? For myself the question really was what is your life worth to you?

A wonderful place we hunted together in the foothills of the Bighorn mountains. Physically challenging but oh so breathtakingly beautiful! The setters were in the prime of their lives the years we hunted here. Just magnificent to have watched them against this vista.

                                                       The people who's lives have been interrupted by loss and hardship that just pick up and continue on their way are an inspiration to me as I look ahead now. I wonder then as I look into the eyes of the new pup watching me at my side what our life together will be like. Beautiful sun rises and sunsets. The passing of the seasons. Watching new life emerge. The comfort of a loyal companion. Tears of laughter. Tears of sorrow. That's the cycle of life. The setters passing reminded me to again understand and embrace it not turn my back on it.

Molly. The queen of the castle!

                                                       The reason I'm writing is so I'll never forget what it felt like to follow not just my beautiful trio of setters but my own heart. I have been lucky to have been able to spend much of my life where I needed to be for the most part. As I look back then it startles me sometimes to now know how important that really was. Looking ahead it makes my path an easy one to choose. Just follow that dog!

                                                      

                                                      

Along The Way, The Cop That Got Shot By A Skunk

                                           This is a story about neighbors mostly. People are pretty much the same wherever you go as I see it. Harmony exists between people when the Golden Rule is observed that is treating others as you would expect to be treated. On the flip side everything can go to hell pretty quickly when people seem to be void of any such wisdom.

With a population the majority of which is retired folks you have within this small town a considerable amount of time spent on lawn and garden maintenance. There are some people that work all day clipping and snipping keeping their property looking beautiful. A great way to keep active and needless to say a great source of pride in doing so.

Now comes the core of the drama. Cats. Lots of domestic cats allowed to wander about and then due to folks that feel sorry for those cats not so fortunate to have homes lots of feral cats living under buildings and within abandoned structures. In the spring of 2015 there was a real problem with the number of both populations. I'd see them hopping in and out of garbage cans in the alleyways left uncovered and of course come across areas in my flower beds they had used as cat boxes. The lady across the street whose yard is just immaculately kept was just beside herself. The ferals and a crew of domestics were using her hedges and display garden as a playground. After listening to her complain about this problem I encouraged her to call the city and talk to the owner of the domestics that lived a few houses away. Turns out that lady fed the ferals in her abandoned garage all winter which explained why they were in our neighborhood.

After trying to just be a good listener hoping my neighbor would push the city into action I said well if you want to borrow my live trap you can. Then just call the cops and they'll come and pick up the cats. I had called them myself inquiring about what they were doing about the problem.

The first day the neighbor had the trap the cops had to come twice within the first couple hours. Then it was pretty much one a day for a week mostly ferals. If my neighbor wasn't going to be home I'd set the trap at my yard and within a short time had caught 7 or 8 cats just on my side of the street in addition to the several that the neighbor had caught. I am not a cat hater by any means it's just that this was a real problem. In the mean time word was out around town that my neighbor and I were "cat catchers" as they referred to us. The cops were in the neighborhood almost daily for over 2 weeks.

Despite our efforts to get the city to deal with the issue the domestics still kept coming into my neighbors garden areas and using her whole yard as a cat box. They'd break off plants, lay down in the flowers and just set up vigils at the bird baths. Then I was up early one morning and walked across the street to check the trap at my neighbors. As I walked around the hedge I could see something in the trap. I watched for a few seconds when I saw black and white and I mean a stripe of white on the back! I laughed to myself knowing what had happened as I also then picked up the faint odor of skunk! It was just after 6 a.m. too early to wake anybody up over a skunk in a trap so I went home and continued on my morning routine of coffee and surfing the news. I lost track of time until my doorbell rang around 9 0clock I guess. As I walked to the front door there stood my neighbor. Oh my gosh I thought I hope she didn't get sprayed! That thankfully wasn't the case as she explained what she had found when she went out to check her garden coffee in hand. I started laughing before she revealed the part about the skunk and she said, "oh did you already know? why I could have been sprayed by that damn thing!" For second I thought I might be in trouble but I quickly added it was too early to wake anybody and I lost track of the time you see... No worries there. I suggested a call to the police.

Officer Nathan rode up minutes later and took a look surveying the situation. I stayed on my side of the street! After 15 minutes or so of walking back and forth trying to figure out how to get this thing out of the yard I walked over to see what he was proposing to do." Well can't shoot him cause it's in town. Spose we could drop a cover on the cage and just walk it to the truck and take him out to the landfill and then shoot him". Just then here comes one of the city employees with the city backhoe. I said "Hey ask Roger he'll know what to do". So officer Nathan flags down the backhoe and the two of them formulate a plan. They decided to lift officer Nathan up in the backhoe bucket over the hedge so he could drop a blanket over the cage then hook a chain to the trap so Roger could then hoist officer Nathan back over the hedge with the cage dangling from the bucket. Then they could put the cage covered in the backhoe and officer Nathan would follow Roger out of town so he could then dispose of the skunk!

I stayed on my side of the street watching the plan in action. What a spectacle! Off they went out of town. I had told officer Nathan that was my trap and I wanted to make sure I got it back. No problem he said I'll bring it right back. It got to be middle of the afternoon and the neighbor and I were both taking a break from lawn and garden maintenance. I said I wondered when my trap was coming back and just at that moment here comes the police vehicle down the street. Officer Nathan gets out and is wearing only a t shirt and not his regular uniform. I can smell skunk pretty strongly. How did it go? Well when I bent down to shoot him in the cage just as I was going to shoot he turned around and shot me first! He said he would have been back sooner but he had to go home and change out of his uniform. He informed me the cost of over 600 dollars including his Kevlar vest was probably a loss as you just can't get that smell out!

An unwelcome visitor. Elliot a well known cat in the neighborhood has claimed my neighbors garden as his domain much to her dismay. We caught him once but his owner refuses to deal with the issue.

So the story made for good conversation that summer but hard feelings still existed between people on opposing sides of the problem. The city did actively communicate to those people feeding feral's finally but my neighbor was still plagued by the domestics from down the street.

Love Creeks Mick

                               Mick my beautiful gentle and loving boy passed away on a cool sunny afternoon the second day of spring 2016. Mick was a Pinecoble setter with tri color markings that were just stunning. Bred as a classic grouse dog his pedigree was full of Old Hemlock lineage.

The sloughs froze early in November 2014 making this day a memorable solo hunt for Mick and I. Two weeks later together with my sons Jared and Carson we enjoyed Mick's last day in the field together on a snowy Thanksgiving weekend. He just wouldn't give up, I'd stop frequently to clean his paws of snow and we'd continue on into the wind. 

He arrived at the Love Creek valley in the winter of 2003 as a pup of 11 weeks. Mick soon revealed his playful nature and gentle personality that were distinct traits throughout his lifetime. With wild birds out our back door there was plenty of scent to discover and explore. Those early days were spent just walking the 3/4 mile lane leading to the farm with me admiring this new and beautiful creature that had come into my life.

We have all experienced moments when we know opportunities are upon us. Instinctively something within us knows we are close to what may be essential to our survival and well being. Mick was exactly that. The match was "right as rain" as the saying goes. So Mick became true north for me at a time when at age 49 I was ready to map out the rest of my life. I often lamented Mick not arriving earlier but the truth was I wasn't quite ready for him yet.

Mick training on quail at the farm

As an avid reader I had been enjoying the Ben Williams accounts of prairie hunting with multiple dogs when I reconnected with an old friend from high school who just happened to have been hunting in North Dakota. Soon 2 new roommates arrived for Mick also Pinecoble setters! That started a decade of traveling and hunting experiences I remembered only reading about in magazines as a kid in the local barbershop.

Thanks to Mick my life had taken on new meaning and purpose. He taught me most of what I now know about dog's even though I'd had a dog all my life. There was also no doubt that I belonged to him. Always by my side and watched by those big brown eyes. Tail wagging till the end.

Mick was a dominant male no doubt about that but due to his gentle nature we always came to compromise. His eyes seemed to always say trust me R lets just try it my way! So most of the time we did as Mick would leave no birds behind ever! And he'd hold a point for as long as it took me to find him. He had uncanny bird sense so I just let him work his magic a beautiful thing it was indeed.

A proud and dominant dog but so very gentle and loving. That was my Mick indeed.

One story about Mick I haven't told in these pages was a visit to the vets office several year's ago. We were sitting in the large lobby waiting to be called when a little boy about 4 years old came walking over with a stuffed toy in one hand. This boy was fidgety and smiling as he made his way towards us Mick having his eye on the toy. He was the only one of my setters that enjoyed toys. The little boy stopped a couple feet from us and said he was here because his mom had to bring their wiener dog to see the doctor because he was to fat! He explained that the doctor said the dog had to be on a special diet but that he still gave him extra food when he was hungry if his mom wasn't looking! Then he reached out and petted Mick on the head and being a proud dominant dog Mick responded with a cautionary rumble from deep within his throat meaning R tell the kid no petting on the head! Tail was wagging the whole time of course but I explained to this precocious little boy what the rules were.

So today I feel a little lost without my Mick. He was my compass for more than a decade. The number one rule in bird hunting is to follow the dog of course. That I did and for many people this may be beyond their understanding how a dog could be a catalyst for changing your lifestyle. The lesson is to know when these opportunities are upon you as they can come in very unexpected ways then listen to the voice inside for directions. Be faithful to yourself and follow them. Thanks to Mick he was all of that for me as well as a loving and faithful companion that helped change my life in so many wonderful ways! Hold that point Mick I'll be there soon.