Saturday was just one of those days where you don’t have to do one thing, and still come home with something in the pocket.
Here I was, walking the tree line across the road, old Model 12, Winchester 16 gauge in my hand. Just taking Bonnie back for what could be her last year hunting, @ 12 years old, and arthritis setting in, she has been a good ol’ dog every year she has blessed my life. Its a crying shame folks don’t hunt with dogs anymore, except the diehards. You can go ahead and pay folks for the right to hunt their land. Heck, they’ll even be kind enough to release the birds for you, for the right dollar amount.
Today was a day you just cannot put a price tag on, one of those days that just comes up once in a lifetime, that you will always remember. So here I am walking out with my grandfather’s gun, handed down to me from my dad. Honestly I shouldn’t even be hunting with it anymore, the last date stamped into the barrel is 1913.
Just about to the ditch, I send Bon into the brush along the tree line. Like the good dog she has always been, she goes head first into the thicket. She starts to sniffin’, then the tail waggin’ goes into overdrive, and there is movement up in front of her. Suddenly there it goes, a cottontail breaking out and heading over to the ditch bank. Bon Bon hot on her tail, that old gal ain’t lost a step! Remember now folks, I am talking about a lab mix “long in the tooth” in dog years.
The rabbit goes to ground, and that ol’ gal just isn’t going to give up that easily. Here I am crossing the ditch, thinking I will just call her off when she is ready to move on. Not Bonnie, she keeps a diggin’. I hear the tell tale squeal of a bunny. Look back, and that gal stood just as proud as she did as a pup, cottontail firmly grasped in her mouth. I give a command I haven’t given in years, “bring the dead”. She crossed that ditch, and dropped her catch in front on my feet.
NOT A SHOT was fired with my grandpa’s gun, and the pride I had in that dog just shined through. She remembered commands I haven’t given her in 5 years, shame on me. You might not be able to teach old dogs new tricks, but folks I am hear to tell you, they don’t forget them either.
That is one hell of a dog in my book. It might take her two days to recover from today’s hunt, the arthritis is that bad, but I will never dare to leave her behind.