Hunting With a Loaner

The transition to one dog is easier than I thought it would be.

For years we’ve been a multiple-dog family. We had as many as four at one time. Now it’s just Dot.

When I’m hunting it’s no longer a case of which dog to watch or follow, there’s only one.

Also, the dog food bill dropped precipitously, and there’s less recycled dog food to pick up in the yard.

I fear, however, that I’m following in the footsteps of my friend E-dub, who’s given up bird dogs completely. He still has a rescue mutt from the pound, but his days of English setters and German shorthairs are behind him.

Now, when he gets the urge to chase birds he simply borrows a dog. A former student of his at the University of Wyoming where he taught journalism lets him use his wire-haired pointer whenever he wants.

A couple weeks ago, while hunting with the borrowed wire-hair, E-dub realized what he’d been missing most: the endless stream of profanity he spews while bird hunting. A well-spoken, gentle soul in most situations, he turns the air blue out in the field.

Blame the dogs, at least his last one, a sweet shorthair appropriately named Streak. She induced a profanity-laced tirade in E-dub that made me blush.

She’s been gone a few years now and E-dub just recently realized what he’s been missing.

Hunting with the loaner on a section of state land near his home in Laramie, he soon discovered he had no control over the dog. The batteries in the electronic collar he was using were dead.

E-dub could only watch as the big-running dog flushed bird after bird out of range. Well, watch and cuss, anyway. He rediscovered his voice.

Venting his displeasure with the wayward pooch was cathartic. He called the dog vile names he hadn’t used since Streak died, threatening the most heinous retribution on the wire-haired pointer and all its litter mates.

“It was a good hunt,” said E-dub, who never fired a shot. “I didn’t know what I had been missing.”

Dot’s so pampered I rarely even tell her she’s a bad dog when she is. I rue the day when she’s gone. I’d hate to have to resort to a loaner. I hear they’re rotten &##@-@#%s!

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]