The Hunt: A Boykin's Perspective

Birds!  Is there anything else that matters?  They take up my entire day and I dream about them at night.  I don't know why but, there is just something about them that drives me crazy.  If you've never flared your nostrils, inhaled deeply and actually tasted the scent of a covey of quail, a gaudy rooster pheasant, chukars on a rock, or a ruffed grouse drumming log, you've yet to understand the meaning of life.  Luckily for me, I live with a funny looking two legged creature that shares my passion.  Sure, he seems slow at times, can't detect scent worth a darn and oftentimes misses with his double tubed bang stick however; he just as often nails what I've flushed and then I have the honor of rushing forward and searching it out and bringing it back to him.  He always takes it from me but it doesn't really bother me.  I mean think about it, since I do all of the work, the least he could do is carry my treasures for me so I can get back to work.  A new season has finally arrived!

My buddy came back last Friday evening from wherever he disappears to five times each week.  He never takes me with him but that's alright since I've got three crazy cats to annoy and I can always bug the other long haired human who lives with us.  She's funny.  She gets grumpy when I lay on her and wake her up but she's always ready to join me in a game of, "lets spread all of my toys around the house".  Sorry, I got off track (It's a Spaniel thing.) but, when he came home last Friday, I noticed that something was different.  He was getting our Jeep ready for something.  Now, I became really curious.  What was he doing?  Did it involve me?  Finally, yessss!  Out came the shotgun and that cool whistle.  I love that whistle!  It makes for a great game.  One blast means I get to sit, two blasts given in consort with weird looking waving of his arms mean I get to run off in the direction that he's waving.  A quick trill means I get to race back to my pal for some goofy gibberish (he talks a lot.), some ear rubbing, and oftentimes a cool draught of water.  Anyhow, he loaded the Jeep while I impatiently watched him from my front seat and then he really got me going!  He went to sleep! What? We're going hunting, not sleeping!  Oh well, you know what they say; "When in Rome".

The alarm went off at 3:30AM.  Woohoo, I love mornings!  He made his coffee, showered and then we loaded into the Jeep and were off on a new adventure.  I thought the ride would never end.  It took us almost three hours to reach the E.E. Wilson State Wildlife Area outside of Corvallis, Oregon.  Thankfully he stopped at a McDonald's drive thru and bought me a sausage egg mcmuffin.  Unfortunately, I had to share it with him and he always eats more of it than me.  I sure wish he'd learn to share 50-50.  Ya, I know I'm not even 40 lbs and he's lots bigger than me but I always do the majority of the work so the way I see it, fair is fair.

We finally pulled into the parking lot and he made me patiently wait while he got ready to go.  For the life of me, I cannot understand why he always has to put on so much stuff.  Unless I put on my neoprene vest for cold water duck hunting, I'm always ready to go.  He finally let me out of the confines of our Jeep and I immediately checked out each bush in front of our vehicle.  I scent marked every bush!  I ended up saying "howdy" to three or four Brittanies, a few Labs, one or two German Shorthairs (they always trot like they think they're cool.), and one Brittany who left a slight French twinge to her mark.  I'll bet if I met her, she'd be snooty.  FINALLY, we were off!  Oh man, so much to smell and see!  Blackberry bushes, tamaracks, oak trees, vine maples, sunflowers, and lush grass.  I even found three mud holes to jump into.  Unfortunately for us, the pheasants seemed to have left town.  They must have heard that I was coming.  We ended up covering lots of ground.  Finally, in the early afternoon I struck gold!  I was cruising by some blackberry brambles when I had to slam on my brakes.  Whoa, wait a minute.  What was that?  Had I detected the faint scent of a quail or two?  I sniffed deeply and confirmed my suspicions.  Yes, QUAIL!  I dove headlong into the blackberry entanglement and out they flushed.  BOOM!  BOOM!  My buddy looked exultant.  He gave me two blasts to send me on my way.  Twenty minutes later, I was exhausted however; I'd found both birds in that thorny mess.  I don't know why he couldn't of helped me out and shot those two birds in some easy cover but, at least we'd finally met with success.  Thankfully, he poured water on me and brushed out all of the stickery stuff stuck in my fur.  After that, he took me to a large pool of cool water and let me soak in it until I felt ready to get going.  As it turns out, we ended up not taking any more birds but, I'm not worried since the season is young.  We've got four months of pure pleasure ahead of us and I'm sure my two legged pal is just as excited as I am to enjoy every minute of it!  Happy Hunting and don't forget to take the time to stop and sniff once in a while.

De Oppresso Liber