Acing the season

I pulled an old scab off Ace last night. It was on his back just above his tail where the barbed wire caught him.

He didn’t cry or flinch. He simply watched and wagged, glad that I was home again.

A couple of days earlier Barb and I boarded the westbound Empire Builder a few blocks from the house, took our seats, and watched Montana pass by until it got dark. Then the Christmas lights came on in the little towns along the tracks and we stared at them out the window until we fell asleep to the click-clack of the rails.

We got off the train in the middle of the night in Spokane and took a taxi to the historic and festively decorated Davenport Hotel.

The next day we drove home through a snowstorm in a new company car.

It was keyless.

Back at the house, much to our chagrin, we discovered so were we. The house was locked. All of the keys inside.

Eventually I cut a screen and forced a window. I’m fairly adept at breaking into my own house.

After unloading the new car, I grabbed the keys to the truck and drove out to the vet’s to pick up the dogs.

They’d been there two nights in the best of care, but when Ace saw me he began to scream. Spot barked and Jem yowled, but Ace screamed. I couldn’t get him out of the kennel soon enough.

For months he and I have been inseparable. Spot is retired. Jem had a cough and hasn’t hunted in weeks. Ace became the dog this fall. We hunt more days than not.

I hadn’t left him since August and his displeasure was ear-splitting. Despite the season it sounded nothing like Feliz Navidad.

Ace, undoubtedly, has separation anxiety issues.

Barb and I are headed to Livingston to celebrate Christmas with family. We’ll take the dogs along this time.

Hunting season wraps up next week. Jem is off the disabled list so he’ll join Ace and me for that final push through the cattails. Then we can lie around getting fat for a few months.

It’s been a wonderful season. I always hate to see it end, but not, I suspect, as much as Ace does.

Merry Christmas.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]