I saw this on Facebook the other day and it made me cry. I'm not sure if that's saying much since I cry (when I'm not enraged) at parallel or crooked lines. I somehow developed a soft spot for Jimmy Stewart when I was a kid. I don't really know much about him, but he …
Love and Grief
"Her name is Rosie", the old man that was camped near us with Florida license plates told me as his dog walked over to me. Rosie, was an overweight black lab with gray on her face and eyes clouded over with glaucoma. "Come on Rosie, don't bother her," he yelled in her direction. I yelled …
Winter Call
This final Sunday of a marvelous chukar season finds us all, for the first time this season, called to something other than hunting. Leslie and I, forced to take a sick weekend, are watching the growing covey of quail scarf corn while the dogs get an unprecedented seventh straight day of no exercise. These diluvial …
Winter Faith
My dog does not care where heat comes from, but he cares ardently that it come, and soon. Indeed he considers my ability to make it come as something magical, for when I rise in the cold black pre-dawn and kneel shivering by the hearth making a fire, he pushes himself blandly between me and …
Shameless Self-promotion
UPDATE 10/21/19: I'm participating in Boise's storytelling institution "Story Story Night" on Tuesday, October 29th, for its "Starry Story Night" event, which weaves together six storytellers' narratives on a theme related to hunting. My part is largely from the piece I published in Gray's about Angus and other things. We've rehearsed several times now, and …
Glenna
[This is a re-post from 3 years ago; 9 years ago today I had to put my first dog down. Glenna changed my life forever.] When I was 37 I moved to Boise, Idaho, where I knew nobody and didn’t have a job. I rented a house, my first time living in a house since …
Hunger
I don't know the people who will feed me... Frank O'Hara, "The Day Lady Died," from Lunch Poems (1964) Please, sir, I want some more...Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist Warning: This post is way less about chukar and more about culture, if you can call it that. We'd probably prefer to think of the word "hunger" …
Saved by a Dog
We all have our stories about how bringing a dog into our lives changed it, enriched it, or sometimes made it more complicated. We have our own tale going back to the beginning of Chukar Culture and where it all got started with this one particular Brittany named Angus who is now 12-years old. Looking …
Off Season Shenanigans
"The man must learn to know his dog as a personality, not a formula." -George Bird Evans  "Peat No!" I yelled at the top of my lungs as he booked full speed through the dog door and outside to the backyard with a big piece of cauliflower firmly gripped in his mouth. The piece …
Advice Needed
Once again, I'm seeking advice from my more erudite and experienced readers... Peat, and sometimes Angus, but always at least one of them wakes us about 4 a.m. wanting to be fed. This has been going on for more than two years. Peat's the ring-leader, and most aggressive. He'll start by pacing and softly whining, …