I have an uncle who likes to classify birds in one of two ways.
Duck.
Not a duck.
Duck, clearly, being the preferred type.
Storm seems to be taking after him. She duck hunts with John and she upland hunts with both of us. But after today, I think her preference is falling heavily toward duck.
On another beautiful, blue sky, fall day my mom and I went out pheasant hunting. We started out with a bang. Trip had a perfect point and retrieve for me and then my Mom and her dog got a bird. (It was probably just as perfect but I didn’t witness it. So for the purposes of this post my dog wins the Most Perfect Dog award). Just after that Storm held a point for me for ages. Ages, because that’s how long it took me to realize she was missing, search her out in the long grass, find her locked on point, come up next to her and finally flush the pheasant. It was a great point and, fortunately, I was shooting straight that day. The bird went down and Storm ran off after it only to return with a slightly damp pheasant. Which was odd, but there was a bit of water around so I didn’t think too much of it.
I should have.
Apparently Storm was looking for ducks.
Mom shot the last bird of the day and I watched as Storm took off after it for the retrieve. She picked it up, ran directly to a very large, muddy puddle and dunked the pheasant in the middle of it. For those of you unfamiliar with how bird hunting with dogs work, let’s be kind to John’s dog (remember that fantastic point!) and just say that’s… not the ideal retrieve. After the pheasant’s initial dunking I believe she looked at it and was still un-satisfied with it’s not-a-duck appearance. So Storm, nosed it and mouthed it, repeatedly rolling it over and over in the giant mud puddle until it was a dark, soggy, mass of feathers.
At this point it may have been a good idea to work on some dog training but it’s quite possible that my mom was too busy making indignant comments on the worthiness of John’s dog while I was too busy giggling and taking pictures, so we didn’t. Eventually Storm crawled out of the mud hole with the sodden mass of feathers. It still didn’t look quite like a duck but on the other hand it no longer looked like any pheasant I’ve ever seen retrieved!
I picked it up, heaviest pheasant I’ve ever handled, and stuffed it into my mom’s game vest for her. I think I heard her sloshing a bit on the way back to the truck.
As for Storm? I’m pretty sure that this weekend John needs to take his dog duck hunting.
Behind the Willows 
Jessie , I’m loving your daily posts. This blog-a-day challenge is a great idea and I love your writing. Good work! Hugs, Annette
Thanks Annette, hope I don’t run out of steam after the first week! 🙂
Rabbit season!
ECHO ECHO
😀
For some reason, I started thinking of when we used to play “Duck, Duck, Goose” when we were in school. LOL 🙂
😀 Maybe that’s what Storm was going for that day too! 🙂
Oh my, I am still chuckling. Five stars for storm.
She had us all laughing for days… Ok, maybe not my mom but the rest of us! 🙂
How funny! Fall of my chair laughing. John will have to work with his dog just a bit!
He maintains that Storm wouldn’t do that to him, we’ll have to see!
Is it legal to hunt squirrel? Spike and I have found a few this fall. You do know that squirrels are just rats in disguise don’t you?
I don’t like squirrels either, and neither does Storm, she spends a lot of time barking at them while they laugh at her from the trees. The barking hasn’t ever convinced them to come down but she still tries. (And yes, open now through Jan. 31st! )
Rotten Dog!
Yup! 😛
Drahthaar? Good luck with correcting that dog’s behavior. Just get used to muddy birds. 🙂
Pudelpointer. And I think I’ll stick with hunting with my Brittany, John can carry his dogs soggy birds! 🙂
Fun story. Guess the dog has a preference. 🙂
It would seem that way! 🙂
It clearly was “not a duck” so what would you expect
I think you’ve rubbed off on her.
[…] and provided me with one of my favorite hunting stories. […]