bird dogs

A friend of mine, Herb Haughton sent me this quote by Ben Ames Williams a few weeks ago. It touched my heart so much that I wanted to share it." A bird dog does not live as long as a man and this natural law is the font of many tears. If a boy and and a puppy might grow to manhood and doghood together,and together grow old,and so in due course die, full many a heartache might be avoided. But the world is not so ordered,and dogs will die and men will weep for them as long as there are dogs and men".
 I still remember my first dog, Bimbo. I don't know whether I trained him to hunt or he trained me. I do know that he met me every day when I got off the school bus, and was rip raring and ready to go bird hunting in the fall and winter as soon as i could drop my book bag. He got run over by a car which is hard to believe because so few cars traveled down what was then a dirt road in front of our home. The accident broke his leg, and Pop took him to the vet. I slept with him out on the porch that night, and told him that he was going to be OK, and he was. That was the first of many answered prayers in my life.
 I remember every single dog I have ever owned, or maybe they owned me. I truly feel sorry for anyone who has never experienced the love of a good dog. As my Dad once told me,"Lock your wife and your dog up in the trunk for an hour. When you open it, see which one is happy just to see you". I have a 12 year old chocolate Lab now who is beginning to turn gray around her muzzle, and has definitely lost a step. I could care less if she ever retrieves another bird for me, but I am already beginning to fear that day that Mr. Williams referred to in his quote above.
 On a lighter note, the ice age and glaciers have receded from the south, and our hunting is great. We never missed a day of hunting with the snow and ice storm of last week as the weather did not quite make it into deep south Georgia, but we did have about half of our hunters in the midweek cycle fail to get here thanks to the Atlanta airport shutting down.

First dove hunt of the fall

We have a tradition here at Riverview of having a dove hunt for all of our guides during Georgia's first of three doves seasons. The first season always is a short one,opening on Labor Day weekend and only lasting a couple of weeks. As you might imagine, it is generally hot in south Georgia at that time.Well, I participated in that hunt yesterday, and I fear that I am becoming my father.
 I can remember being amazed to hear my Dad tell me that he wasn't sure that he wanted to hunt badly enough to suffer a heat stroke, and he would often pass on the first season. This is another one of those cases where I should have listened to my father. I had enough sense to leave my sweet,old Lab in her pen because I figured the heat would be too much for her. I conveniently forgot that I am almost 64, and had to run around in the 92 degree heat and high humidity picking up my own birds.Phew, I'm glad that I did not take but two boxes of shells with me,or I might have been stupid enough to stay out there !
 Speaking of shotgun shells, I have never seen shotgun shells as difficult to purchase as they have been this summer and fall. I have heard a lot of rumors as to why, but the fact of the matter is we can't get a definite commitment from any of the major ammunition companies as to when they are going to cease making bullets and start producing shotgun shells. We are scurrying around buying 40- 50 cases here and there at retail just to make certain that we have a decent supply on hand for the start of the quail hunting season. We placed our wholesale order in late March, but the delivery date keeps getting postponed for one unbelievable tale or another.
 I have about decided to retire and live off of my life savings. What I will do on the second day, I haven't got a clue yet!